Analysis of Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia finds land rights for indigenous communities are key to sustainable economic development, slowing deforestation and curbing climate change, the World Resources Institute (WRI) reported in October 2016.
Previous WRI research found that when indigenous peoples and communities have secure rights to land, both deforestation rates and carbon emissions in those lands often go down significantly. In its new report Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, matching analysis data show that the average annual deforestation rates in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia were significantly lower in tenure-secure indigenous forests than in similar areas without secure tenure: 35 per cent lower in Bolivia, 40 per cent lower in Brazil, and 50 per cent lower in Colombia.
Building on this analysis, the authors calculated the economic value of carbon and other ecosystem-services benefits of secure indigenous lands in the Amazon and found billions of dollars in value.
(WRI/ile)
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