When people cut, burn or otherwise damage the Amazon, they worsen human health. This principle has guided Indigenous peoples for millennia. A fresh paper in Communications Earth & Environment bolsters that idea, showing that disease rates drop in areas where Indigenous groups sustain the forest.
With the United Nations climate conference slated for Brazil this November, the study’s authors and outside experts stress the global stakes for negotiators tackling climate change. The host city, Belem, known as the Amazon’s gateway, is expected to spotlight Indigenous stewardship in conservation and climate action.
“In Indigenous lore the forest is a living person, and human health is tied to its wellbeing,” explained Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon (FECOTYBA). “If the state does not protect Indigenous rights and territories, we will harm the people, their health, and the ecosystem itself.”
Paula Prist, senior program coordinator for the Forest and Grasslands Unit at the International Union for Conservation of Nature and co‑author of the study, noted that respiratory ailments like asthma from smoke and zoonotic illnesses such as malaria illustrate how forest loss can endanger health.
The researchers gathered and examined data on forest quality, legal recognition of Indigenous lands and disease occurrence across all countries that border, or contain parts of, the Amazon.
University of Washington climate scientist Kristie Ebi called the work “impressive,” pointing out that it highlights the complex factors that affect human health and the crucial role Indigenous communities play in shaping those factors. “Other regions could apply these methods,” she said.
Anthropology and global health professor Magdalena Hurtado of Arizona State University praised the study’s innovative ways of controlling for variables such as healthcare access. She cautioned, however, that the presented precision—e.g., the claim that health benefits appear only when forest cover exceeds 40 %—might not fully account for the correlational nature of the data.
Despite those concerns, Hurtado sees the study as a promising starting point that connects legal recognition of Indigenous lands with health outcomes.
Hernández emphasized that this evidence is crucial for policymakers who will be in Brazil.
Wildfire research manager James MacCarthy of the World Resources Institute, who was not part of the study, remarked that while Indigenous stewardship supports intact forests, protecting forest outside Indigenous territories remains important as well.
Prist added that the study’s goal was to understand how landscapes can remain healthy for people, and that it would be unrealistic to assume all forest ecosystems stay static, especially given food and livestock needs.
Ecologist and data scientist Julia Barreto, another study contributor, praised the international team’s effort to make the data publicly available and to bring renewed focus to the Amazon’s worldwide significance.
Hernández concluded that such research sharpens ancestral knowledge and informs global policy decisions.