Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru will not be able to meet their 2030 climate goals if they do not protect indigenous communities' lands, according to a report released Thursday.

To achieve the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the international community must take into account indigenous peoples and local communities, said the report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Climate Focus.

In Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the lands of indigenous peoples and other local communities capture more than twice as much carbon as non-indigenous ones, the report found.

In addition, 92 percent of these forested lands serve as net "sinks" -- they store more carbon than they emit -- due to their traditional and sustainable practices as well as the fact that they are largely untouched forest.

The authors believe that if measures are not applied to protect these lands, drastic actions will have to be taken that are almost impossible in other sectors.

Peru, for example, could retire its entire car fleet to compensate for the loss of only half of the carbon sequestration services provided by forests to indigenous peoples and local communities, said Darragh Conway, senior legal consultant for Climate Focus.

Brazil and Colombia should withdraw 80 percent of their vehicle fleet and Mexico 35 percent.

In these four countries, these lands are under constant threat from livestock farming, mining and deforestation, which is largely illegal and linked to corruption and complicity between governments and illegal actors.

The authors also urged governments to speed up land titling and ensure that indigenous and local communities have full rights to the land they own, and to respect their right to informed consent before projects are carried out on their territory.

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