Protect Land Rights, Save Forests, Save Lives, Too

Of course, saving forests is good for the animals that live there and the environment. But saving forests where indigenous people live can have another surprising benefit. It can be good for the health of all of the people who live throughout the region, researchers have found.

That benefit seems to come not just because forests are healthier ecosystems in general, but because indigenous people are good at taking care of them, a new study showed.

Burning forests can cause heart disease, lung disease, skin conditions, and kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, according to numerous estimates. Destroying forests spreads out insects that carry malaria, yellow fever, and other infections that sicken and kill people.

Dr. Júlia Rodrigues Barreto of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo in Brazil; Dr. Ana Filipa Palmeirim of the Federal University of Pará, Brazil and Université Libre de Bruxelles; and colleagues wanted to see if protection of indigenous land had an effect on health.

They looked at 20 years of data from the Amazon, which reaches into 9 South American countries and is the most biodiverse region on the planet.

As with everything involving biology, the picture is complicated. But if at least 45 percent of the forest cover was preserved in an indigenous territory – an area preserved for the people who originally lived there – nearby areas reported fewer diseases caused by fires, as well as vector-borne diseases such as malaria that are spread by insects.

They reported their findings in the journal Communications Earth and Environment. In this episode of One World, One Health, listen as they discuss what they found and what it could mean for everyone on the planet.