Fund for Nature asks to recognize the work of indigenous people in protecting forests

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) asked this Wednesday “to recognize the work of indigenous tribes in the protection of forests and habitats”, key in the fight against climate change, in a press conference during the COP26 climate summit.

Damien Fleming, head of forests for the largest international organization for the conservation of nature, was “cautiously optimistic” about the signing on Tuesday by more than 100 countries representing 85% of the global forest of a declaration to stop and reverse logging. of trees this decade, in exchange for financing of $ 19.2 billion in public and private funds.

Fleming considered that the high number of signatories and the announced financing are “good signs”, although he clarified that, to avoid the empty promises of the past, the initiative must begin to be implemented now “without waiting for 2030” and the money must reach as soon as possible “to communities on the ground, including indigenous people.”

WWF also saw positive that governments recognize that, without protecting forests, which are carbon sinks, it will not be possible to meet the goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees this century.

For its part, the Coalition of Nations with Tropical Forests, which represents 52 countries, many of them Latin American, said yesterday to Efe that the money promised is very insufficient to compensate for the loss of income derived from deforestation, on which these territories depend. (I)