Inside Climate News reports:

The land rights of Indigenous peoples across millions of acres of forests in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru must be protected and strengthened if the world has any hope of achieving the goals set forth in the 2015 Paris Agreement, a study released on Thursday found.

The study, by the World Resources Institute and Climate Focus, two non-profit global research organizations focused on alleviating climate change, supports a growing body of research emphasizing the important role Indigenous peoples and other local communities play in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and protecting biodiversity.

In Brazil, for instance, the government would need to take 80 percent of vehicles off the roads to account for the carbon dioxide kept in the forests on Indigenous and local communities’ lands, the report said.

But instead of including Indigenous communities when devising plans to meet goals under the Paris Agreement, governments have largely ignored the role those communities play in meeting emission reductions targets, according to the report.

Worse, the report said, governments have carried out policies that make it more difficult for Indigenous communities to obtain title over their land, and have enabled harassment and assaults against those communities by failing to protect Indigenous peoples’ rights. [Continue reading…]