Forest carbon in Amazonia the unrecognized contribution of indigenous territories and protected natural areas

Carbon sequestration is a widely-acknowledged and increasingly-valued function of tropical forest ecosystems; however, until recently the information needed to assess the carbon storage capacity of Amazonian Indigenous Territories (ITs) and Protected Natural Areas (PNAs) in a global context remained either lacking or out of reach. Here, as part of a novel north-south collaboration among Amazonian indigenous and NGO networks, scientists, and policy experts, we show that the nine-nation network of nearly 3,000 ITs and PNAs stores more carbon above ground than all of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia combined, and despite the ostensibly secure status of these cornerstones of Amazon conservation, a conservative risk assessment considering only ongoing and planned development projects puts nearly 20% of this carbon at risk.