Blog

Deforestation threatens biodiversity and has negative health and economic impacts on communities. Nearly half of Mexico is covered by forests, which host 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Making Mexico a critical net carbon sink for the world.

• 01/12/2023
• Tedi Rabold

Addressing climate change and conserving forests go hand-in-hand, but what does that look like in practice? This blog outlines six approaches for using the power of nature to address the climate crisis.

• 11/16/2022
• Neeha Mian

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are one of the five foundational principles of USAID’s new 2022-2030 Climate Strategy. On August 30, 2022, USAID held a webinar to explore the ways the Agency is developing and applying NbS to the challenges of climate change.

• 10/31/2022
• Christine Chumbler

Climate change impacts different regions in different ways and, as such, requires tailored initiatives to meet local development needs. Every region will face challenges brought on by the climate crisis and will integrate programs and systems to adapt.

• 01/20/2022
• Sophie Schrader

Efforts are underway to secure land titles for community members who want to access the irrigation system. Proof of land ownership is required to gain access to irrigated water.

• 08/05/2021
• USAID Greening Prey Lang

Earth Day 2021’s theme is “Restore Our Earth,” focusing on the central role that nature can play in combating the climate crisis. It’s a timely theme: on Earth Day, President Biden is hosting a Leaders’ Summit on Climate to increase global ambition to address the climate crisis and galvanize efforts to keep the vital goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach.

• 04/22/2021

In Indonesia’s Papua Province, a province on the eastern edge of the Indonesian archipelago that shares an island with the nation of Papua New Guinea, reducing deforestation is the most effective way to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

• 04/22/2021
• Christine Chumbler

Cocoa certification may not be doing its job. The expansion of the international cocoa industry across the world’s tropical regions has caused significant destruction of tropical forests, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and destroying habitat.

• 03/11/2021
• David Miller

Forest protection plays a critical role in maintaining the world’s biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and supporting global economic growth.

• 01/28/2021
• David Miller

The end of USAID’s five-year LESTARI project (2015-2020) in Indonesia is an opportunity to recognize USAID’s collective achievements with the Government of Indonesia in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from land use in both biodiverse and carbon-rich landscapes.

• 11/02/2020
• Tedi Rabold

Perú es el cuarto país con el mayor volumen de turba tropical, cuya mayor parte se encuentra relativamente menos degradada en comparación con otras regiones del mundo. Sin embargo, esto podría cambiar. La creciente presión del desarrollo y la carencia de políticas específicas de protección ponen en riesgo a las turberas de Perú y sus reservas de carbono.

• 10/06/2020
• Isabela Barriga

Peru stands as the country with the fourth-highest volume of tropical peat, most of which is relatively less degraded than in other regions of the world. However, this could change. Increasing development pressure and lack of peatland-specific protection policies puts Peru's peatlands— and its carbon reserves—at risk. 

• 10/01/2020
• Isabela Barriga

The ways we use land—for instance, agriculture, forestry, urban development, or ecosystem protection—has long-term impacts on global climate change. Approximately one quarter of net global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come directly from land use (like agriculture) and land use change (like deforestation).

• 09/22/2020
• Noel Gurwick, Isabela Barriga, Julia Bradley-Cook

The amount of development assistance available for clean energy, sustainable landscapes, and climate adaptation investment is relatively small. Partner governments have multiple urgent and competing needs for public expenditures, recently exacerbated by the global pandemic and recession.

• 08/19/2020
• Dr. Eric Hyman

Why do many community-based forestry enterprises (CBFEs) perform poorly even after years of donor and government investment? This was one of the questions that motivated a USAID Productive Landscape (ProLand) project investigation into CBFEs as a strategy for improving land management.

• 08/14/2020
• Mark Donahue, Ian Deshmukh