(Glasgow) Indigenous peoples own only half of the forests and land on which they live, a situation which further weakens the fate of these territories considered essential to global climate balance, underlines a report published on Saturday on the sidelines of COP26 of ONU.
“Indigenous peoples and local communities occupy at least 958 million hectares of land” in the 24 countries studied, in Latin America, but also in Central Africa and subtropical Asia, notes this report drawn up by the Human Rights Initiative. and Resources (RRI), the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Rainforest Foundation (RFUS).
However, “they have legal rights to less than half of this area, or 447 million hectares”, an “insecurity (which) makes the communities and their lands much more vulnerable to grabbing and external pressure”, add the authors. of this study.
According to an FAO report released in the spring, around 80% of the world’s biodiversity is now found in areas inhabited by indigenous peoples, with, for example, a much lower rate of deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean on land. where governments have recognized them as collective land rights.
Since the opening of the 26e UN climate conference, several announcements were made in an attempt to protect the planet’s natural resources. Among them, the creation of a fund of 1.7 billion dollars, provided by developed countries and private entities like the Ford Foundation, to support land claims and the protection of indigenous communities.