Amazonian locals key to saving “lungs of the planet” says study

September 12, 2017
By Chris Arsenault
Reuters

TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Locals are more effective than governments in protecting the world’s largest rainforest, a study said on Tuesday, amid efforts to crackdown on soaring illegal deforestation.

Ranching and logging are rapidly destroying forests that have been home for centuries to indigenous communities in the Amazon, often dubbed the “lungs of the planet” for its role in sucking up climate-changing carbon dioxide.