The Xingu indigenous people’s homeland in the Amazon could cover more than 900 square kilometres of dark land.
Leo F. Freitas/Getty Images
The Amazon’s rich soil, farmed by indigenous communities for centuries, may store billions of tonnes of carbon, suggesting that rainforests play an even larger role in stabilizing the Earth’s climate than previously thought.
Known as “terra preta” or “black earth” for its distinctive color, the soil was formed when people spread ash and other organic waste around settlements. It is more fertile and stores about twice as much carbon as the region’s typical sandy, nutrient-poor soils. In some areas…
