Indigenous peoples own only half the forests and the land they live on, a situation that further weakens the fate of these lands that are essential to global climate balance, according to a report published Saturday on the sidelines of the 26th session of the United Nations conference.

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“Indigenous peoples and local communities occupy at least 958 million hectares of land” in 24 countries studied, in Latin America, but also in central Africa and subtropical Asia, notes this report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Woodwell Research Center Climate and the Rainforest Foundation (RFUS).

However, “they have legal rights to less than half of this area, or 447 million hectares,” “insecurity (which) makes communities and their lands more vulnerable to appropriation and external pressure,” add the authors of this study. .

According to an FAO report released in the spring, about 80% of the world’s biodiversity is now found in indigenous areas, with, for example, a much lower rate of deforestation in Latin America and the Caribbean on land. Where governments have the collective rights recognized to them.

Since the opening of the 26th United Nations Climate Conference, several declarations have been made to try to protect the planet’s natural resources. Among them, the creation of a $1.7 billion fund, provided by developed countries and private entities such as the Ford Foundation, to support land claims and protect Indigenous communities.