To Save the Amazon, What if We Listened to Those Living Within It? Aiming to prevent “climate and ecological collapse,” rainforest inhabitants release a detailed plan to save their home, honing in on ending fossil fuel subsidies and securing Indigenous land rights.

2 comments

1. Research is quickly catching up to them, study after study confirming that Indigenous communities with secure land tenure have the best conservation outcomes, even when located near urban areas. And, increasingly, scientists are partnering with some Indigenous and local communities to identify key biodiversity hotspots and prioritize those areas, like animal reproduction and migration zones, for conservation. 

2. No. This is once again the anti-science obsession of “indigenous knowledge” rearing its ugly head, refusing to accept that science and tradition may contradict each other and that the interests of native tribes and nature may not always be aligned.

   Furthermore, any attempt to reify the idea that being indigenous grants a group rights above and beyond those granted to all humans should be resisted.