DECARBONISATION

age land in a collective manner) shows that many communities around the world are helping to fight climate change through forest stewardship.6 Collectively held forests in Mexico and the Philippines were net carbon sinks, sequestering 70 million more tonnes of CO2/year than they emitted from 2001 to 2021, comparable to the fossil fuel emissions of Romania. Their net sinks per hectare were also on par with the net sinks per hectare of Amazonian Indigenous and Afro-descendant forests.Unlike in the Amazon, however, forests outside collective lands in Mexico and the Philippines were carbon sinks.

Indigenous Forests In The Amazon Are Under Threat

Between 2001 and 2021, approximately 94% of Indigenous forest area in the Amazon bioregion was a net sink7, ranging from about 99% of Indigenous forests in Venezuela to about 76% in Bolivia. The remaining 6% of Indigenous forest area was a net carbon source, responsible for 42% of Indigenous forests’ emissions in the Amazon. This percentage, however, varied by country. In Colombia, for example, 2% of Indigenous forests were responsible for 21% of their emissions, and in Suriname, 11% of Indigenous forests were responsible for half their emissions. While many Indigenous forests in the Amazon are threatened, this finding suggests that the carbon in some Indigenous forests is under much greater pressure than in others. And while many Indigenous communities have successfully shielded their forests from development and other pressures, threats are mounting. As competition for land intensifies, land disputes between Indigenous people and external actors, especially governments and companies, are becoming more common and growing more dangerous. An increasing number of Indigenous people in the Amazon and elsewhere are being harassed, arrested and murdered for their efforts to protect their land. Latin America is consistently ranked as the region with the most killings of land and environmental defenders.

How To Protect Indigenous Forests And The Carbon They Hold

As more forests are lost and converted to other uses, Indigenous and other community forests stand out as stable carbon sinks that must be secured. Some of the most pressing strategies to protect Indigenous forests include:

• Recognize community lands in climate strategies: Community forests can play a major role in helping countries meet their international climate action commitments. In Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, for example, Indigenous forests sequester emissions equivalent to an average 30% of their countries’ national emissions-reduction pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The climate community — including international negotiators, national policymakers, donors and civil society leaders — should recognize the mitigation contributions of community forests. Forested countries with large areas of community land should make them a central component of their climate action strategies.

• Secure and protect community lands: Securing community lands is a low-cost, high-benefit investment and a cost-effective carbon mitigation measure when compared to other carbon capture and storage approaches. Governments should support communities in their efforts to protect and sustainably manage their land. Such assistance might include help in monitoring collective lands, apprehending and bringing to justice unlawful intruders, strengthening community organizations, and protecting community land and environment defenders. Governments should also establish accessible and transparent procedures to register community land in a government cadaster and document it with a land certificate or title.

• Increase funding to communities. Official development assistance (ODA) is under-supporting communities for their climate change mitigation contributions. From 2011 to 2020, bilateral, multilateral and private foundation donors disbursed about $2.7 billion for projects supporting community forest management in tropical countries, less than 1% of ODA for climate change and less than 5% of ODA for general environmental protection. Should community forests be degraded or lost, large stocks of carbon would be released into the atmosphere and the lands would no longer be able to sequester the same amount of carbon. Governments and donors should channel more financial resources to communities and their organizations, recognizing that they’re some of the world’s best forest protectors. There is much that can be done to protect forests and the communities who call them home. At stake is not just the fate of carbon, but people’s lives and lifestyles.