Why Indigenous Stewardship Is Essential for Climate and Disability Justice

New research confirms what Indigenous communities have always known: when we protect the land, we protect the people. A study just published in Communications Earth & Environment shows that Indigenous-managed forests across the Amazon Basin significantly reduce the spread of 27 diseases among the region’s 33 million residents.

For two decades, researchers tracked nearly 30 million cases of fire-related, zoonotic, and vector-borne diseases across eight countries. They found that communities living near healthy Indigenous forests experienced fewer cases of malaria, hantavirus, Chagas disease, and other illnesses that thrive when ecosystems are destroyed. Healthy, intact forests protect communities from the respiratory and heart problems caused by smoke from wildfires and agricultural burning. This is a clear, measurable public health benefit as a direct result of Indigenous land stewardship. It shows that protecting forests is not only about preserving biodiversity, but survival, health, and justice.

However, while this data validates Indigenous knowledge in the language of science, the truth is that our ancestors never needed a peer-reviewed study to understand the health of the land and the people are one and the same. Colonization ignored and undermined that truth, replacing stewardship with extraction. Now, climate change, deforestation, and wildfire are driving public health crises that Indigenous knowledge could have prevented and can heal.

And the harm is not distributed equally. Indigenous and Black communities across the Americas bear the brunt of environmental destruction, racism, and ableism. Smoke from forest fires doesn’t just aggravate the lungs of those already living with disabilities. It creates new health crises, causing respiratory illness, heart disease, and other chronic conditions in people who were previously healthy. While children, elders, and those with preexisting conditions are particularly vulnerable, no one is immune. The fires and deforestation destroy traditional homelands, uprooting communities and forcing displacement. Losing access to traditional lands and resources is itself a form of harm, breaking cultural, social, and economic systems that sustain health and well-being. In this way, environmental destruction both disables and displaces, layering vulnerability onto communities already targeted by systemic inequities.

Indigenous knowledge isn’t a relic of the past. It is a living, breathing survival guide for the present and the future. It is time that governments, policymakers, and climate negotiators stop treating Indigenous land rights as optional and start recognizing them as public health infrastructure. Protecting Indigenous territories and sovereignty protects everyone.

At the upcoming COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the world will gather to discuss climate justice and policy, especially in regards to protecting the Amazon Rainforest. These conversations cannot ignore the realities of Indigenous land stewardship or the compounded impacts of ableism, racism, and colonialism. Indigenous knowledge is essential for meaningful climate solutions. It is evidence-based, practical, and lifesaving.

The call to action is clear. Stand with Indigenous communities as they fight for their land. Demand disability-inclusive climate policy. Support organizations that uplift Indigenous and Black voices. Hold governments accountable to recognize Indigenous sovereignty and territories, enforce legal protections, and integrate Indigenous leadership into climate strategies.

Our survival depends on it.

Our ancestors survived by knowing that our fate is inextricably tied to the land and the water, to one another. Even when colonialism tried to destroy that knowledge, they refused to abandon their responsibilities to steward and safeguard the land, water, and their communities. If humanity is going to have a future, it will be because we finally learn to do the same.