FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 5, 2025

CONTACT: press@earth-insight.org

New Report Exposes Industrial Threats to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Across World's Largest Tropical Forests Ahead of COP 30

New Analysis Reveals Oil and Gas, Mining, Logging, and Other Threats Plus Proposed Solutions

A landmark report released today by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and Earth Insight provides a comprehensive spatial analysis of extractive industry threats – including oil and gas, mining, industrial logging, and large-scale agriculture – facing Indigenous Peoples and local communities who steward nearly one billion hectares of the world's most critical forests.

The new report — Indigenous Peoples’ Territories and Local Communities on the Frontlines: Mapping Threats and Solutions Across the World's Largest Tropical Forests  reveals the staggering scale of industrial pressure on territories across the Amazon, Congo Region, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica — regions that together represent 35 million Indigenous Peoples and local communities protecting forests that are essential to global climate stability and biodiversity, as well as proposed solutions. The new analysis – which combines geospatial analysis, community data, and case studies – is being released worldwide in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Bahasa Indonesia with spokespeople available globally. Downloadable maps can be found here.

Released ahead of COP30 in Brazil, the report aims to create urgency for Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities' policy priorities and solutions and influence the global climate agenda by demonstrating that Indigenous Peoples' territorial rights are inseparable from achieving international climate and biodiversity goals.

The report's key findings reveal an unprecedented crisis:

• In the Amazon: 31 million hectares (12%) of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities' territories are overlapped by oil and gas blocks, 9.8 million hectares by mining concessions, and 2.4 million hectares by industrial logging concessions
• In the Congo Region: 38% of community forests are overlapped by oil and gas blocks, while 42% face mining threats, and 6% industrial logging pressures
• In Indonesia: 18% (6 million hectares) of Indigenous Peoples’ lands are overlapped by wood concessions, 5% (1.6 million hectares) by oil and gas blocks, and nearly 1 million hectares by mining concessions
• In Mesoamerica: 18.7 million hectares (17%) of mining concessions overlap Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ lands, while 3.7 million hectares overlap with oil and gas concessions

The report also dives deep into alarming trends in a range of countries and corridor areas, including:

• Yavarí-Tapiche Corridor (Peru/Brazil): The proposed 16-Mha corridor for Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Voluntary Isolation (PIACI) retains 99% intact forest but faces overlapping oil, gas, mining, logging, and road projects; Peru has failed to recognize key reserves, jeopardizing vulnerable PIACI populations.
• Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil): 30% of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities' territories are currently covered by farmlands, with the threat of land conversion continuing
• In North Maluku (Indonesia): The O’Hongana Manyawa Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation are surrounded by nickel concessions and deforestation from mining visible from satellite imagery - much of it for the energy transition

This assessment comes as Indigenous Peoples and local communities face mounting pressure not only from traditional extractive industries but also from projects justified by "green transition" agendas and national development plans. Despite representing less than 5% of the global population, Indigenous Peoples and local communities safeguard 54% of the world's remaining intact forests and 43% of Key Biodiversity Areas, yet receive minimal financial support for their proven stewardship.

The report also highlights Indigenous Peoples and local communities-led solutions proving effective across regions, including:

• In Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve, community forest concessions lost only 1.5% of their forests over ten years — seven times less than national averages.
• In Colombia, 25 Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities' Territorial Entities awaiting formal recognition maintain over 99% of their forests intact across 36% of the Colombian Amazon.
• In Indonesia's Wallacea Archipelago, Gendang Ngkiong communities reclaimed 892 hectares of Indigenous Peoples’ land through participatory mapping and legal reforms.

The report affirms the need for calls to action defined in the Brazzaville Declaration and GATC's Five Demands: securing Indigenous Peoples and local communities' land rights, guaranteeing free, prior, and informed consent, ensuring direct financing, protecting defenders' lives, and integrating traditional knowledge into global policies. These demands provide a clear roadmap for governments, funders, and institutions to shift from extraction to regeneration, demonstrating that without securing Indigenous Peoples and local communities' rights and supporting community-led stewardship, international climate and biodiversity targets cannot be achieved.

The report calls on governments to align national policies with Indigenous Peoples and local communities' leadership, financial institutions to redirect resources away from extractive industries toward Indigenous Peoples and local communities-led conservation, and international institutions to move beyond symbolic recognition to enforceable protections for rights, territories, and defenders.

Quotes from GATC Leadership and Earth Insight - All Available for Interviews

Juan Carlos Jintiach, Executive Secretary, GATC: "Without decisive action to uphold rights and support Indigenous-led stewardship, humanity will fail to meet its climate and biodiversity goals. Yet by following the leadership of those who have protected these ecosystems for generations, the world has a viable roadmap toward regeneration."

Kleber Karipuna, GATC Co-Chair and Executive Coordinator of APIB (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil): "Our governance systems, ancestral knowledge, and ways of life keep these ecosystems in balance, yet this balance is breaking under the advance of mining, agribusiness, oil extraction, illegal logging, land invasions, and policies that undermine our rights. We are not a barrier of last resort; we are the living root of a possible future."

Joseph Itongwa, GATC Co-Chair and Regional Coordinator of REPALEAC (Network of Indigenous and Local Communities for the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa): "Our communities remain resilient and play a vital role in protecting vast traditional territories that are home to a significant portion of the world's remaining intact forests and ecosystems. We cannot play this essential role if our territories, our rights, our identity, and our livelihoods are under extreme threat."

Levi Sucre Romero, Leader, Mesoamerican Forest Peoples Alliance: "Mesoamerica is a strategic corridor linking the Americas, where tropical forests, mountains, coastlines, and coral reefs converge in one of the most biologically and culturally rich regions on the planet. These lands and waters are also home to a wide diversity of Indigenous Peoples and local communities whose traditions, governance systems, and care practices have maintained the balance of ecosystems for centuries. Today, this balance is under siege. A just and sustainable future depends on recognizing our leadership and securing the resources to protect Mesoamerica's living heritage—not as a favor, but as a shared responsibility with the planet.”

Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General of AMAN (Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago in Indonesia): "The expansion of mining, palm oil, and development projects has taken more than 11.7 million hectares of Indigenous Peoples’ territories in a decade. The world must know: sustainability can only be achieved through the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples."

Fany Kuiru, General Coordinator of COICA (Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin): "If the Amazon disappears, it will take the rain and the rivers with it. This is no act of solidarity but of survival: If the Amazon disappears, it will take our shared future with it."

M. Florencia Librizzi, Deputy Director, Earth Insight: "The evidence is clear: without urgent recognition of territorial rights, respect for free, prior, and informed consent, and protection of the ecosystems that sustain all of us, global climate and biodiversity goals cannot be achieved. We must recognize and amplify the community-led models of stewardship and governance that already point us toward a just and regenerative future."

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About the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC)

The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities brings together more than 36 million Indigenous Peoples and local communities across 24 countries who defend 958 million hectares of forests. GATC's regional members include the Indonesian Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN); the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB); the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB); the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA); and the Network of Indigenous and Local Populations for the Sustainable Management of Central African Forest Ecosystems (REPALEAC), united in protecting territories, safeguarding biodiversity, and advancing climate solutions through ancestral governance and traditional knowledge.

About Earth Insight

Earth Insight builds critical transparency tools and momentum for restricting fossil fuel, mining, and other industrial expansion threats to key ecosystems and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Our research, communications, and engagement work are central to supporting policy interventions that key political and financial actors can make to protect critical ecosystems as a vital step toward addressing both the biodiversity and climate crises.