{"title":"Indigenous Lands inhibit mining-induced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon","authors":"Luiz Guilherme dos Santos Ribas , Mauro Galetti","doi":"10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03540","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Indigenous Lands (ILs) have been recognized as valuable tools for Amazon conservation. Originally established to protect indigenous rights and culture, they have unintentionally become essential for environmental conservation. ILs cover approximately 23 % of the Brazilian Legal Amazon and face significant threats, including from mining activities. Proposed legislative changes aim to facilitate mineral exploration within ILs, leading to an increase in mining claims and illegal mining activities. This study assesses the impact of ILs in the Brazilian Legal Amazon on mining-induced deforestation by comparing it to a counterfactual scenario in the absence of ILs. The results indicate that ILs are effective in avoiding mining-induced deforestation, preventing the accumulated deforestation of approximately 25 million hectares between 2004 and 2019. This corresponds to 20 % of all ILs’ territories and 4.7 % of the Brazilian Legal Amazon extension. Although their effectiveness has declined over the years, this underscores the importance of ILs in protecting nature and indigenous communities. The results also suggest that the individual impacts of ILs on mining-induced deforestation vary across the Brazilian Amazon. These individual variations highlight challenges in which decision-makers should strengthen governance, enhance enforcement, and implement targeted policies to safeguard the Amazon rainforest and indigenous rights.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54264,"journal":{"name":"Global Ecology and Conservation","volume":"59 ","pages":"Article e03540"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Ecology and Conservation","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425001416","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Indigenous Lands (ILs) have been recognized as valuable tools for Amazon conservation. Originally established to protect indigenous rights and culture, they have unintentionally become essential for environmental conservation. ILs cover approximately 23 % of the Brazilian Legal Amazon and face significant threats, including from mining activities. Proposed legislative changes aim to facilitate mineral exploration within ILs, leading to an increase in mining claims and illegal mining activities. This study assesses the impact of ILs in the Brazilian Legal Amazon on mining-induced deforestation by comparing it to a counterfactual scenario in the absence of ILs. The results indicate that ILs are effective in avoiding mining-induced deforestation, preventing the accumulated deforestation of approximately 25 million hectares between 2004 and 2019. This corresponds to 20 % of all ILs’ territories and 4.7 % of the Brazilian Legal Amazon extension. Although their effectiveness has declined over the years, this underscores the importance of ILs in protecting nature and indigenous communities. The results also suggest that the individual impacts of ILs on mining-induced deforestation vary across the Brazilian Amazon. These individual variations highlight challenges in which decision-makers should strengthen governance, enhance enforcement, and implement targeted policies to safeguard the Amazon rainforest and indigenous rights.
期刊介绍:
Global Ecology and Conservation is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal covering all sub-disciplines of ecological and conservation science: from theory to practice, from molecules to ecosystems, from regional to global. The fields covered include: organismal, population, community, and ecosystem ecology; physiological, evolutionary, and behavioral ecology; and conservation science.