The article in the journal Communications Earth & Environment measured the forests' capacity to absorb smoke pollution from fires that are intentionally started to clear land for farming.
Combined analysis of 10 years of data on disease, forest cover and pollution found that each hectare of forest burned generates health costs of $2 million (1.8 million euros) a year due to lung and heart infections, they said.
They estimated that forests in Indigenous territories by absorbing pollution particles prevent a potential 15 million smoke-related respiratory and cardiovascular infections per year.
Inhabited areas with large areas of forest had fewer infections than those with low cover, with particulate matter in the air reduced by the greenery, they wrote.
Lead author Paul Prist of the New York-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance told AFP that to reduce the threat from fires it was necessary "to reduce deforestation, strengthen environmental legislation, increase the penalty for those who deforest and burn the forest and strengthen the agencies responsible for the management and control of fires."
The Amazon region is home to half of the world's remaining tropical forests. Indigenous territories make up more than a fifth of its land.
Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office this year vowing to reverse environmental destruction under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
But Brazilian government figures released this year showed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a record high in February.
Under Bolsonaro, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged by 75 percent compared to the previous decade.
Amazon Indigenous lands prevent disease, save billions: study
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) April 6, 2023 -
Protected Indigenous reservations in the Amazon rainforest absorb thousands of tonnes of airborne pollution each year, saving around $2 billion annually in healthcare costs for treating respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, according to a study published Thursday.
The decade-long study analyzed the health impacts of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which release huge amounts of particles into the atmosphere that can travel hundreds of kilometers (miles), damaging the air quality in distant cities.
By protecting their own lands against such fires -- often set by land-grabbers, cattle ranchers and others encroaching on the forest -- and instead saving pollution-absorbing trees, Amazon Indigenous peoples help prevent thousands of cases of potentially deadly diseases, found the study, published in the journal Communications, Earth & Environment.
"Worldwide, forests are known for absorbing pollutants from fires through pores on the surface of the leaves, but this is the first time we have estimated the capacity of tropical forests to do this," said lead author Paula Prist of US-based research group EcoHealth Alliance.
"Our results indicate that the Amazon rainforest can absorb as much as 26,000 metric tonnes of the particles every year, and Indigenous territories are responsible for 27 percent of this absorption," she said in a statement.
The study found Indigenous forests prevent 15 million cases of disease each year, saving the health care system at least $2 billion -- a conservative estimate, researchers said.
Numerous studies have found protected Indigenous lands play a key role in protecting forests, whose pollution-absorbing capacity makes them vital to the race to curb climate change.
Indigenous leaders said the new study adds yet another argument to the case for protecting native lands.
They urged Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to follow through on his promise to resume creating new Indigenous reservations, a process that was suspended under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
"This study reinforces what Indigenous peoples have been saying for ages," said Dinamam Tuxa, executive coordinator of the Association of Brazil's Indigenous Peoples (APIB).
"It demonstrates the importance of our territories in fighting dangerous pollution... and climate change."
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