SRINAGAR, India & BELÉM, Brazil, November 8 (IPS) – A report by the International Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and Earth Perception paints a stark image of how extractive industries, deforestation, and local weather change are converging to hazard the world’s final intact tropical forests and the Indigenous Peoples who defend them.
The report, ‘Indigenous Territories and Native Communities on the Frontlines,’ combines geospatial evaluation and group information to indicate that almost one billion hectares of forests are below Indigenous stewardship, but face rising industrial threats that might upend international local weather and biodiversity objectives.
Regardless of representing lower than 5 p.c of the world’s inhabitants, Indigenous Peoples and native communities (IPs and LCs) safeguard greater than half of all remaining intact forests and 43 p.c of world biodiversity hotspots.
These territories retailer huge quantities of carbon, regulate ecosystems, and protect cultures and languages which have sustained humanity’s relationship with nature for millennia. However the report warns that governments and firms are undermining this stewardship by way of unrestrained extraction of assets within the title of financial development and even “inexperienced transition.”
One of many primary report authors, Florencia Librizzi, who can be a Deputy Director at Earth Perception, informed IPS that the views and tales from every area are grounded within the lived realities of Indigenous Peoples and native communities and are available straight from the organizations from every of the areas that the report focuses on in Mesoamerica, Amazonia, the Congo Basin, and Indonesia.
Throughout 4 crucial areas—the Amazon, Congo Basin, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica—extractive industries overlap with thousands and thousands of hectares of ancestral land. Within the Amazon, oil and fuel blocks cowl 31 million hectares of Indigenous territories, whereas mining concessions sprawl throughout one other 9.8 million.
Within the Congo Basin, 38 p.c of group forests are below oil and fuel risk, endangering peatlands that retailer immense portions of carbon. Indonesia’s Indigenous territories face 18 p.c overlap with timber concessions, whereas in Mesoamerica, 19 million hectares—17 p.c of Indigenous land—are claimed for mining, alongside rampant narcotrafficking and colonization.
These intrusions have turned Indigenous territories into sacrifice zones. From nickel extraction in Indonesia to grease drilling in Ecuador and unlawful logging within the Democratic Republic of Congo, company incursions threaten lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems. Between 2012 and 2024, 1,692 environmental defenders had been killed or disappeared throughout GATC international locations, with 208 deaths linked to extractive industries and 131 to logging. The report calls this violence “the paradox of safety”—the act of defending nature now places these defenders at lethal danger.
But the report additionally paperwork extraordinary resilience. In Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous forest communities have achieved near-zero deforestation—just one.5 p.c forest loss between 2014 and 2024, in comparison with 11 p.c in adjoining areas. In Colombia, Indigenous Territorial Entities keep over 99 p.c of their forests intact.
The O’Hongana Manyawa of Indonesia proceed to defend their lands towards nickel mining, whereas the Guna folks of Panama handle autonomous governance programs that combine tradition, tourism, and ecology.
Within the Congo, the 2022 “Pygmy Legislation” has begun recognizing group rights to forest governance, a historic step towards justice.
The report’s findings had been launched forward of the thirtieth UN Local weather Convention (COP30), emphasizing the urgency of aligning worldwide local weather and biodiversity frameworks with Indigenous rights.
The 2025 Brazzaville Declaration, adopted on the First International Congress of Indigenous Peoples and Native Communities from the Forest Basins, supplies a roadmap for such alignment.
Signed by leaders from 24 international locations representing 35 million folks, it requires 5 key commitments: safe land rights, free and knowledgeable consent, direct financing to communities, safety of life, and recognition of conventional data.
These “5 Calls for” are the cornerstone of what the GATC calls a shift “from extraction to regeneration.”
They demand an finish to the violence and criminalization of Indigenous leaders and demand that international local weather finance attain native arms.
The report notes that, regardless of the 2021 COP26 pledge of 1.7 billion {dollars} for forest safety, solely 7.6 p.c of that cash reached Indigenous communities straight.
“With out financing that strengthens territorial governance, all international commitments will stay symbolic,” stated the GATC in a joint assertion.
Reacting to the announcement of the The Tropical Forest Eternally Facility (TFFF) introduced on the primary day of the COP Leaders’ Summit and touted as a “new and modern financing mechanism” that might see forest international locations paid each single 12 months in perpetuity for maintaining forests standing, Juan Carlos Jintiach, Government Secretary of the International Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) stated, “Even when the TFFF doesn’t attain all its fundraising objectives, the message it conveys is already highly effective: local weather and forest finance can’t occur with out us Indigenous Peoples and native management at its core.
“This COP provides a vital alternative to amplify that message, particularly because it takes place within the coronary heart of the Amazon. We hope the main target stays on the communities who dwell there, these of us who’ve protected the forests for generations. What we want most from this COP is political will to ensure our rights, to be acknowledged as companions quite than beneficiaries, to make sure transparency and justice in local weather finance, and to channel assets on to these defending the land, regardless of rising dangers and violence.”
Jintiach, who can be the report’s creator, informed IPS the International Alliance has proposed establishing clear mechanisms to make sure that local weather finance reaches Indigenous Peoples’ and native communities’ initiatives straight, not by way of layers of exterior actors.
“That’s why we’ve established our Shandia Platform, a world Indigenous-led mechanism designed to channel direct, predictable, and efficient local weather finance to our territories. By way of the Shandia Funds Community, we be certain that funding is managed in keeping with our priorities, governance programs, and conventional data. The platform additionally features a clear system to trace and monitor funding flows, with a selected indicator for direct finance to Indigenous Peoples and native communities,” he stated.
The report additionally warns that international conservation objectives such because the “30×30” biodiversity goal—defending 30 p.c of Earth’s land and sea by 2030—can’t succeed with out Indigenous participation. Insurance policies below the Kunming-Montreal International Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Settlement should, it says, embed Indigenous governance and data at their core. In any other case, local weather methods danger reinforcing historic injustices by excluding those that have sustained these ecosystems for hundreds of years.
Jintiach stated that based mostly on his expertise at GATC, Indigenous Peoples’ and native communities’-led conservation fashions usually are not solely important but in addition deeply efficient.
“In our territories, it’s our peoples and communities who’re conserving each nature and tradition, defending the forests, waters, and biodiversity that maintain all of us,” he stated.
He added, “A number of research verify what we already know from expertise: Indigenous and local people lands have decrease charges of deforestation and better biodiversity than these managed below state or non-public fashions. Our success is rooted in ancestral data, collective governance, and a deep religious connection to the land, rules that guarantee true, lasting conservation.”
In line with Jintiach, the GATC 5 calls for and the Brazzaville Declaration are crucial international reference factors and we’re inspired by the extent of curiosity and engagement displayed by political leaders within the lead-up to COP 30.
“We’re hopeful that these rules will probably be uplifted and championed at COP 30, the UN Everlasting Discussion board on Indigenous Points, CBD COP 17 and on the lengthy highway forward,” he stated.
When requested concerning the rising violence towards environmental defenders, Jintiach stated that the Brazzaville Declaration requires a world conference to guard Environmental Human Rights Defenders, together with Indigenous Peoples and local people leaders.
In line with him, the governments should urgently sort out the corruption and impunity fueling threats and violence whereas supporting collective safety and stopping rollback of rights.
“This additionally means upholding and strengthening the Escazú Settlement and UNDRIP, and guaranteeing long-term safety by way of Indigenous Peoples and native communities-led governance, safe land tenure, and accountability for human rights violations.”
Earth Perception’s Government Director Tyson Miller described the collaboration as a name to motion quite than one other coverage doc. “With out pressing recognition of territorial rights, respect for consent, and safety of ecosystems, international local weather and biodiversity objectives can’t be achieved,” he stated. “This report is each a warning and an invite—to behave with braveness and stand in solidarity.”
The case research spotlight how Indigenous governance fashions already supply confirmed options to the local weather disaster. Within the Brazilian Amazon, Indigenous organizations have proposed a self-determined Nationally Decided Contribution (NDC) to cut back emissions by way of territorial safety. Their slogan, “Demarcation is Mitigation,” underlines how securing Indigenous land rights straight helps the Paris Settlement’s objectives. Equally, in Central Africa, communities have pioneered decolonized conservation approaches that combine Indigenous management into nationwide park administration, reversing exclusionary fashions imposed since colonial occasions.
In Mesoamerica, the Muskitia area—often known as “Little Amazon”—illustrates each disaster and hope. It faces deforestation from drug trafficking and unlawful logging, but community-based reforestation and forest monitoring are restoring ecosystems and livelihoods. Girls and youth play main roles in governance, displaying how inclusive management strengthens resilience.
The report’s conclusion is unequivocal: the place Indigenous rights are acknowledged, ecosystems thrive; the place they’re ignored, destruction follows. It argues that the battle for land is inseparable from the battle towards local weather change. Indigenous territories usually are not simply sources of uncooked supplies; they’re “residing programs of governance, tradition, and biodiversity” important to humanity’s survival.
The Brazzaville Declaration urges governments to ratify worldwide human rights conventions, finish deforestation by 2030, and combine Indigenous territories into nationwide biodiversity and local weather plans. It additionally requires a world conference to guard environmental human rights defenders, whose security is central to planetary stability.
For GATC’s leaders, the message is deeply private. “Our conventional data is the language of Mom Earth,” stated Joseph Itongwa, GATC Co-Chair from the Congo Basin. “We can’t defend the planet if our territories, our identification, and our livelihoods stay below risk.”
This function is revealed with the assist of Open Society Foundations.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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