COP26: Half of Indigenous peoples do not own land, report says

Indigenous peoples occupy only half of the forests and land where they live, a situation that further weakens the fate of these lands that are considered necessary for the balance of the global climate, underlines a report published today on the sidelines of COP26, the UN conference climate.

“Indigenous peoples and local communities occupy at least 9,580 million acres of land” in the 24 countries surveyed, in Latin America but also in Central Africa and subtropical Asia, according to a report by the Rights and Resources Initiative ( RRI), the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Rainforest Foundation (RFUS).

However, indigenous peoples “have legal rights to less than half of this area, ie 4,470 million acres”, an “insecurity (which) makes communities and their areas much more vulnerable to grabbing (land) and external pressures “, add the authors of this study.

According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released in the spring, almost 80% of the world’s biodiversity is now inhabited by indigenous peoples, for example, with a rate of deforestation in Latin America. and the Caribbean much lower in the areas on which their governments have recognized collective territorial rights.

Since the start of the 26th UN Climate Conference, several announcements have been made in an effort to protect the planet’s natural resources. Among them is the creation of a $ 1.7 billion fund, provided by developed countries and private entities such as the Ford Foundation, to support territorial claims and protect indigenous communities.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ