Blog

With agriculture driving deforestation, global climate protection and biodiversity conservation goals seem to collide with the drive to produce more food. Researchers warn of an impending “food security-biodiversity-climate” crisis and “looming land scarcity.”

• 10/12/2021
• Daniel Evans

Illegal alluvial gold mining in Colombia is a complex phenomenon that not only sweeps away vegetation but alters the balance of ecosystems through aggressive mechanical extraction methods that create deserts. In Antioquia, Colombia, this has degraded over 45 thousand hectares of land, stripping away valuable trees that can absorb carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases.

• 04/09/2020
• Climatelinks

South America may be sitting, unaware, on a pile of climate gold, ammunition in efforts to forestall global warming. New maps of tropical and subtropical peatlands suggest these carbon-rich wetlands are more widespread in South America than on any other continent, with significant deposits in the Andean mountains.

• 11/25/2019
• CIFOR

“The water is pushing very hard on our islands and communities,” recounted the Bonthe Deputy Mayor, during a recent meeting with USAID staff in the southwestern district of Sierra Leone. His description captures the profound impacts that climate change is having on coastal communities.

• 04/29/2019
• Julia Bradley-Cook

Integrating biodiversity and sustainable landscapes objectives in development programming can increase the sustainability of interventions, amplify results and reduce costs. ‘Integrating Biodiversity and Sustainable Landscapes in USAID Programming’ highlights these and other key considerations for USAID staff and development practitioners interested in connections between biodiversity and sustainable landscapes priorities.

• 04/23/2019
• Catherine Wahlen, Jennifer Kane

In the West Gonja and Sene districts of northern and central Ghana, respectively, deforestation caused by charcoal production is affecting sustainable livelihoods.

• 10/18/2018
• SERVIR

The asymmetry between men’s and women’s participation in forestry decision-making is often rooted in two inter-related issues. First, forestry institutions and forest resources are generally male-dominated and second, village-level decision-making takes place in the public sphere. Women are traditionally associated with the private sphere of home and family life.

• 03/08/2018
• Christi Hang

To help bolster both community and ecological resilience, USAID’s Hariyo Ban (Green Forests) program was established in 2011 to work in two biodiverse landscapes in Nepal: Terai Arc and Chitwan-Annapuran.

• 03/05/2018
• Climatelinks

With collaboration between Winrock, the Government of Vietnam and the private sector, Vietnam’s payments for forest environmental services has the potential to be a model for other countries struggling to conserve forest areas — and a way to help people live more secure and prosperous lives.

• 02/28/2018
• Lauren Keller, Nga Dang

USAID is building mutually beneficial partnerships with private sector actors that leverage their respective expertise, assets, technologies, networks and resources to achieve greater development impact.

• 02/26/2018
• Climatelinks

In their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), 92 developing countries mentioned livestock-related emissions, and 48 of the 92 explicitly mentioned intentions to reduce emissions from livestock-related sources such as enteric fermentation, manure management and biogas, and grasslands and silvopastoral systems. But how do countries plan to document reduced emissions?

• 10/12/2017
• Julianna White

The Commodities and Forests Agenda 2020 report, launched September 19 by the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 and World Economic Forum, lays out 10 priority areas that company executives, policy-makers and civil society leaders should focus on to accelerate progress in addressing commodity-driven deforestation.

• 09/22/2017
• Climatelinks

In March, we focused on USAID’s approach to improving sustainable land managment for climate change resilience and mitigation, and the use of mobile technology to strengthen land tenure and management. 

• 03/28/2017
• Climatelinks

This month Climatelinks focuses on approaches to land management for achieving climate change benefits and resilience. We are highlighting ways in which climate change affects land and natural resources and how improved land management increases resilience and mitigates climate change.

• 03/16/2017
• Climatelinks