Researchers at the World Resources Institute have found that tenure-secure indigenous forestlands provided significant global carbon benefits. In Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia alone, they say this is worth between USD25bn to USD34bn over the next 20 years – equivalent to taking between nine million and 12.6 million passenger vehicles off the roads for a year. Dr. José Manuel Vieira Fragoso's work addresses matters related to this - the role of biodiversity in carbon storage, the influence of culture on resource use, the sustainability of human-occupied tropical forests in an increasingly globalized world, and the socio-ecological sustainability of rural livelihoods in the Amazon. He joins us to discuss his research, and to highlight why it’s not just a moral argument to maintain peopled forests, but how it’s essentially a very cost-effective way to reduce emissions for the benefit of the planet.

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