Solutions journalism is news about how communities and organizations are responding to social and environmental problems. This collection contains solutions stories about a range of indigenous peoples’ activities that reduce carbon emissions while safeguarding traditional ways of life.
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Although indigenous communities contribute the least to climate change, they are among those most dramatically impacted by it, because of their dependence on the land combined with social marginalization. But their subsistence-based livelihoods, combined with traditional knowledge and federal laws, puts them on the front line of resistance against deforestation, extraction and exploitation of natural resources, and expansion of unsustainable agricultural practices. Given that indigenous and community-owned lands represent 18 percent of all land area, including at least 1.2 billion acres of forest, incorporating traditional land management techniques like agroforestry systems and crop rotation into “modern” management protocols will help reduce emissions and preserve biodiversity.
Project Drawdown considers indigenous land management one of the top solutions for fighting climate change.