Protect Indigenous people’s rights or Paris climate goals will fail, says report

Indigenous leaders in the Amazon basin demand South American governments halt industries that damage the rainforest. Photograph: Johanna Alarcon/Reuters

Paris climate agreement goals will fail unless the rights of Indigenous people who protect rainforests are honoured, according to a new report.

Forest lands stewarded by Indigenous people and communities in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru sequester about twice as much carbon as other lands, according to the analysis.