Systemic fossil fuel expansion threatens 20% of Amazon, Congo, SE Asia forests—integrated land-use and energy policies needed to break extractive cycles

The 20% overlap between fossil fuel blocks and tropical forests is not a coincidence but a symptom of a global political economy that prioritizes extractive industries over ecological and social well-being.

This crisis is rooted in colonial land grabs, structural adjustment programs, and the unchecked power of multinational corporations, which together have trapped Global South nations in cycles of debt and environmental destruction. Indigenous communities, who have sustained these forests for millennia, are systematically excluded from decision-making, while Western conservation models often displace them in the name of biodiversity. The solution lies in decolonizing land governance, breaking the colonial debt cycle, and integrating energy and land-use policies that center Indigenous sovereignty and ecological integrity. Without addressing these structural forces, fossil-free zones risk becoming mere greenwashing tools, perpetuating the very extractive logics they claim to oppose.