"Why land rights for indigenous peoples could be the answer to climate change," 29 Nov 2016

…[T]he best way – or at least the cheapest way – to stop climate change is to grant land rights to indigenous communities…Stopping deforestation is the most economically efficient way of preventing carbon emissions…The World Resources Institute…reports that giving indigenous people land rights leads to the preservation of forests as carbon sinks. And, as a means of storing carbon, it is between five and 42 times more cost-efficient than fitting carbon capture…[Brazil’s] official body for looking at indigenous people’s land rights, FUNAI, is due to decide…on whether to grant them to the Munduruku people. They live in the Tapajos basin, an area…being eyed up for the construction of more than 40 hugely destructive mega-dams. The Munduruku can protect their bit of the Amazon for us, as they have done for centuries…and saving us the money we’d have to spend on taking carbon out of the atmosphere if industry is allowed turn it into carbon emissions…