For us, protecting our forests is like protecting our families. They are our homes. They give us life. For decades, we’ve witnessed deforestation destroy large areas of tropical forests, where people saw them worth more dead than alive. Our forests have avoided that fate, as we’ve fought for protections to designate them as Indigenous territories. But now our forests are under threat. We represent Indigenous communities from the Peruvian Amazon and Panama. We have lived in and safeguarded our forests for generations, helping maintain biodiverse ecosystems designated as high forest, low deforestation (HFLD) areas, which are regions with historically low deforestation. Our forests store immense amounts of carbon and are home to rich biodiversity. Yet carbon markets have not adequately acknowledged our efforts to keep forests standing in these regions. As a result, our communities risk missing out on critical financing that could be made available by the voluntary carbon market. That is why the communal reserves in Peru, represented by the National Association of Executors of the Communal Reserves Administration Contract (ANECAP) and many other Indigenous communities in tropical forests countries like Panama, have been defending HFLD crediting approaches as a way to channel funds to help our communities combat the escalating forces driving deforestation. Forest in Guna territory, Panama. Image courtesy of Onel Masardule. Compensation for our efforts Our communities’ practices to conserve forests have been in place for decades and are helping keep forests standing today and into the future. In the Communal Reserves of the Peruvian…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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