Forests on protected Indigenous lands are healthier, according to scientists.

Human activities have resulted in rising temperatures, a massive carbon imbalance, and massive biodiversity loss over the last two centuries. However, there are instances where human stewardship appears to aid in the repair of this damage. 

Photographer: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Photographer: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain


Researchers from Asia, Africa, and the Americas examined tropical forests across Asia, Africa, and the Americas and discovered that forests on protected Indigenous lands were the healthiest, most functional, diverse, and ecologically resilient.

"I'm looking at Indigenous lands to see how conservation outcomes on these lands are, rather than just focusing on protected areas, which are often run by the state," says lead author Jocelyne Sze, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield.

The team looked at four types of land when assessing forest health: non-protected lands, Indigenous lands, protected areas that overlapped Indigenous lands, and protected forests that were not found on Indigenous lands.

"We used a metric called forest integrity to measure the quality of the forest in terms of structure, composition, and function—it refers to how resilient and healthy a forest is," Sze explains. "Our previous research found that across the tropics, Indigenous lands had lower deforestation and degradation rates than non-protected areas, but deforestation and degradation rates are quite simple measures, so we wanted to look at forest integrity."

Sze and her colleagues discovered that forests in areas where protected lands and Indigenous lands overlapped had higher forest integrity than forests in any other category in all of the regions they studied. The Americas had the most land in this category, while Africa had the least. Some of their findings surprised the team.

"It was actually quite fascinating that it wasn't all positive. We discovered that in Asia and the Americas, the effect on integrity was actually worse than in non-protected areas when only Indigenous lands were present "Sze says

While Sze did not study why forests in non-protected Indigenous lands were worse off, she does have some theories. "Indigenous lands and rights are not recognized in much of Asia. So, even if a region is designated as traditionally Indigenous, Indigenous people may not have control over the land "she claims "Also, because many minerals, oil, and gas deposits are frequently found within Indigenous lands, it's not surprising that those lands are frequently overexploited."

Sze hopes that she and her colleagues will be able to continue learning about how Indigenous land rights and management fit into our conservation policy. "My research is heavily influenced by what decolonial climate movements are attempting to achieve, which is to give Indigenous and local communities more autonomy over these spaces," she says.

Human activities have resulted in rising temperatures, a massive carbon imbalance, and massive biodiversity loss over the last two centuries. However, there are instances where human stewardship appears to aid in the repair of this damage. Researchers from Asia, Africa, and the Americas examined tropical forests across Asia, Africa, and the Americas and discovered that forests on protected Indigenous lands were the healthiest, most functional, diverse, and ecologically resilient.

"I'm looking at Indigenous lands to see how conservation outcomes on these lands are, rather than just focusing on protected areas, which are often run by the state," says lead author Jocelyne Sze, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield.

The team looked at four types of land when assessing forest health: non-protected lands, Indigenous lands, protected areas that overlapped Indigenous lands, and protected forests that were not found on Indigenous lands.

"We used a metric called forest integrity to measure the quality of the forest in terms of structure, composition, and function—it refers to how resilient and healthy a forest is," Sze explains. "Our previous research found that across the tropics, Indigenous lands had lower deforestation and degradation rates than non-protected areas, but deforestation and degradation rates are quite simple measures, so we wanted to look at forest integrity."

Sze and her colleagues discovered that forests in areas where protected lands and Indigenous lands overlapped had higher forest integrity than forests in any other category in all of the regions they studied. The Americas had the most land in this category, while Africa had the least. Some of their findings surprised the team.

"It was actually quite fascinating that it wasn't all positive. We discovered that in Asia and the Americas, the effect on integrity was actually worse than in non-protected areas when only Indigenous lands were present "Sze says

While Sze did not study why forests in non-protected Indigenous lands were worse off, she does have some theories. "Indigenous lands and rights are not recognized in much of Asia. So, even if a region is designated as traditionally Indigenous, Indigenous people may not have control over the land "she claims "Also, because many minerals, oil, and gas deposits are frequently found within Indigenous lands, it's not surprising that those lands are frequently overexploited."

Sze hopes that she and her colleagues will be able to continue learning about how Indigenous land rights and management fit into our conservation policy. "My research is heavily influenced by what decolonial climate movements are attempting to achieve, which is to give Indigenous and local communities more autonomy over these spaces," she says.

Journal information: Current Biology


Comments



Font Size
+
16
-
lines height
+
2
-