Blog

Inside the protected area of Menabe Antimena is Madagascar's largest dry forest--45% of which has disappeared in only the last 10 years due to massive deforestation, fires, migration, illegal maize cultivation, corruption and unscrupulous private interests. Menabe Antimena is one of the many critical ecosystems that the USAID Hay Tao project is working to protect.

• 08/26/2021
• Mihary Randrianarivelo

Stacks of sustainable charcoal produced at Mampu cooperative site outside of Kinshasa visited as part of a scoping mission looking at alternative local species to integrate into agroforestry woodfuel systems to increase the volume of sustainable charcoal supply for urban areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• 07/07/2021
• Climatelinks

As COVID-19 has made us all painfully aware, there can be serious global consequences when disease-causing pathogens make the leap to humans from other animals.

• 06/08/2021
• USAID

The baby chimpanzee nestled in its mother’s arms was a joyful surprise for the Bossou Forest community of southwest Guinea. On November 14, 2020, residents witnessed the first birth of a western chimpanzee in the Bossou Forest in almost a decade.

• 03/18/2021
• Destina Samani, Matthew Steil, Katie Moulton

This blog series features interviews with the winners of the 2020 Climatelinks Photo Contest. This photo, submitted on behalf of SERVIR West Africa, is available on the Climatelinks Photo Gallery.

• 03/03/2021
• Climatelinks

Synthia Ontita, Research and Project Management Associate of The Youth Cafe, discusses the importance of youth involvement in Africa’s sustainable development.

• 02/03/2021
• Kate Minden

This is the second of three blogs examining the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic for sustainable landscape programs. The first blog discusses how deforestation and forest fragmentation can increase the likelihood of future pandemics.

• 11/24/2020
• Eric Haxthausen

Stacks of sustainable charcoal produced at Mampu cooperative site outside of Kinshasa visited as part of a scoping mission looking at alternative local species to integrate into agroforestry woodfuel systems to increase the volume of sustainable charcoal supply for urban areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, carried out by the U.S. Forest Service International Programs and supported by USAID’s Africa Bureau in July 2018.

• 11/18/2020
• Climatelinks

In Central Malawi, nestled below Chipata Mountain and slightly to the west of Lake Malawi, lies Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, Malawi’s largest remaining wild landscape and oldest wildlife reserve. The reserve was home to 1,500 elephants in the 1990s. By 2015, there were fewer than 100 left.

• 09/23/2020
• John Kerkering, Katie Moulton

Jean Bruno, nursery agent, and his wife work at their tree nursery in Sahambavy, Fianarantsoa, Centra Madagascar. In Madagascar, where bush fire and slash hand-burn agriculture are a common practice, reforestation is crucial. The ASOTRY project, implemented by ADRA and funded by USAID/FFP, restores forests through reforestation activities.

• 09/17/2020
• Climatelinks

Tanzania’s Rufiji River Delta hosts the largest mangrove forest in Eastern Africa, a critical coastal ecosystem that provides habitat for migratory birds and diverse marine life, stabilizes the shoreline, and traps sediment and nutrients washing downstream in the Rufiji River. Unfortunately, overexploitation and degradation of these mangrove forests present a persistent challenge.

• 09/10/2020
• Olivia Freeman, Dr. Mwita Mangora

Deforestation, forest degradation, poaching, and environmental problems caused by climate change pose serious threats to many of West Africa’s already fragile ecosystems, including the region’s biodiversity-rich forests. Award-winning international journalist David Goodman learned about the severity of these threats as he traveled to the countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia to document the work of the USAID-funded West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WA BiCC) Program.

• 08/26/2020
• West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change program

Yao Ahou, a cocoa farmer in Côte d’Ivoire, is well aware of the challenge she faces in farming for the core ingredient for the world’s chocolate. “For us cocoa farmers, our problem is climate change. When we expect the rains, it is the sun that comes up, and when the sun is expected, it is the rains that come.

• 05/26/2020
• Ethan Budiansky

Nearly two-thirds of what remains of West Africa’s rainforests are in Liberia. But will that always be the case? Deforestation at the hands of humans once posed the biggest threat. Now climate change is exacerbating the challenge to protect forests and biodiversity. As chief of party of the USAID-funded Forest Incomes for Environmental Sustainability (FIFES) Activity, I’ve seen how our activity, implemented by ACDI/VOCA, is succeeding in this fight to protect forests and forest-dependent communities.

• 04/29/2020
• Glenn Lines