Who are the best guardians of the world's tropical forests whose preservation is vital for keeping climate change and biodiversity loss in check?

It's an oft-heard mantra that indigenous peoples who have lived in or near those forests - from Latin America to Africa and Asia - for centuries are the key to keeping them safe from rapacious businesses and illegal loggers.

But why and how is that so? That part of the equation is rarely discussed.

Our Bogota-based reporter Anastasia Moloney ventured into the Colombian rainforest in southeastern Amazonas province to find answers to these crucial questions.

They include age-old fallow farming techniques, where forest plots are cultivated for several years and then the soil left to regenerate and trees to regrow. Some groups must get permission from a shaman before cutting down trees, and then only certain species.

Using dynamite to kill fish in the rivers is banned, while environment-damaging cattle are a no-no. Land is divided up, with designated areas for hunting, fishing and farming.

"We've been living here for thousands of years and there's no destruction of the forest," said Norma Souza Matapi, a member of the Matapi indigenous group.

Yet, despite the evidence pointing to the efficacy of indigenous traditions and lifestyles in protecting forests, that beneficial co-existence is - in many cases - not respected.

Tales abound of indigenous groups being evicted from, or kept out of, forests in the name of conservation, even though international donors often talk these days of the need to ensure that does not happen.

Our correspondent Anuradha Nagaraj writes about how indigenous women, in particular, are bearing the brunt of goverment-led efforts to increase India's shrinking forest cover.

In Madhya Pradesh state, fences and security guards are cutting off Janaka Bai and other women from essential supplies of firewood and the natural forest products they gather and sell for an income.

On a more positive note, we took a look at an innovative "tree banking" project at the heart of Meenangadi's campaign to become India's first carbon-neutral village by 2025.

Here in southern Kerala state, farmers get free saplings from the village council, which then lends them 50 rupees per tree for each year it stays standing until 2031. At that point, the loan is written off and farmers can do what they like with the trees.

The big global news this week - which didn't come as a huge surprise - is that many of the world's biggest corporations with ambitious "net-zero" emissions pledges to tackle climate change lack a clear strategy to achieve them, and are misleading consumers about how "carbon neutral" their products and services are.

Net-zero plans by 25 top global companies - from Amazon to Nestle and Google - add up to at best an average 40% reduction in emissions, said an inaugural report from the NewClimate Institute, with one of its authors warning the commitments "cannot be taken at face value".

See you next week!

Megan

Consumers left in the dark as corporate net-zero plans fail to add up
Scrutiny of carbon cutting pledges needs improvement, researchers say, with clearer labelling of "green" products to help buyers make genuinely climate-smart choices

EXPLAINER: What is 'net zero' and why does it matter?
Many countries and companies have set targets for 'net zero' emissions to curb global warming. Meeting them will require huge changes in how we live, work and play, starting now

Defending the Amazon: How indigenous culture protects Colombia's rainforest
Indigenous communities are widely considered the best guardians of vanishing rainforests. From using farm plots later regrown as forest to looking at nature as having its own rights, here’s why that’s the case

India's forest-planting push leaves indigenous women out in the cold
Communities rely on forests for firewood and other natural products they gather and sell – but a government tree-planting drive is cutting them off from land and livelihoods

Indian village banks on tree mortgages in bid to go carbon-neutral
Striving to earn the title of India's first net-zero village, Meenangadi is giving farmers loans they never have to pay back - as long as they keep their trees standing

Egypt's tuk-tuk drivers wary of plans for green streets
As Egypt launches an ambitious greening of its transport ahead of COP27, Cairo’s tuk-tuk drivers fear they’ll lose out

OPINION: Replacing corporate income tax with a carbon tax can help the climate
A carbon tax would encourage companies to reallocate the capital they spend on consumption towards developing green technologies

OPINION: There can be no climate action without targets to protect wetlands
Safeguarding and restoring shrinking wetlands is our last, best defence against global warming and biodiversity loss