The World Resources Institute (WRI) has published a new report on the net carbon impact of Amazon forests, finding that areas under management of Indigenous communities and other local people remain big carbon sinks, absorbing carbon from the rest of the world. Areas of the Amazon controlled by other parties, on the other hand, are now generally so subject to industrial extraction and fire that they are net emitters into the global atmosphere.
Bob Berwyn and Katie Surma wrote the study up in detail yesterday on Inside Climate News. We featured the story as an Editors’ Pick for the day.
Three important related resources came to mind when I read these reports. First, a recent public statement issued by the groups Cultural Survival and First Peoples Worldwide calling for the discontinuation of using the terms Indigenous and Local Communities together as one, because of the distinct interests and rights of Indigenous communities.
The second important resource to check out is Cultural Survival’s recent magazine issue dedicated to Indigenous land stewardship. While this WRI report and the Inside Climate News coverage of it are important, we think it’s essential to listen directly to the voices of Indigenous people concerning these matters.
Third, Cultural Survival recently held a great live video conversation with Indigenous people around the world doing land stewardship work. I’ve thought about it many times in the week since I started watching it.
Sunflower News has a partnership with Cultural Survival that is very important to us. Once we launch the site and community publicly, I’d hope to reach out to our friends there to ask for any comment that we could include in a blog post like this. For now, though, we will link to these relevant resources above and keep listening to what they publish online. It’s consistently inspiring and politically essential to a just and sustainable future.