Blog

This blog is the second part in an Editor’s Pick Series highlighting USAID’s work with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

• 04/19/2022
• Sophie Schrader

In order for USAID to have maximum impact in confronting the most urgent demands of the climate crisis, improved participation at all levels is key. Thus, an increased emphasis on working with Indigenous Peoples and local communities is critical to USAID’s climate efforts.

• 03/03/2022
• Sophie Schrader

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

In 2021, the Climatelinks community submitted over 160 resources on topics ranging from climate resilience in WASH and agriculture to environment and energy trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. Other notable documents included the 2020 Amazon Vision Report, an updated SERVIR Service Planning Toolkit, and more than 30 Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) Annexes on climate change. 

• 12/16/2021
• Stephan Hardeman

Leveraging the learning generated from USAID’s portfolio of climate change and blended and innovative finance programs, and drawing lessons from other leaders in the space, USAID aims to facilitate additional investment into meaningful development projects that contribute significantly to climate change targets.

• 10/20/2021
• Sashi Jayatileke

Climate adaptation can take many forms, ranging from disaster risk reduction to natural resources management, according to the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

• 04/14/2021
• Steve Hardeman

“For me, hope is the feeling that keeps you going, even though all odds may be against you. For me hope comes from action not just words.” Greta Thunberg, World Economic Forum 2021. Greta Thunberg, 18 year-old climate and environmental activist, addressed the World Economic Forum on January 25, 2021 with a call for action to address the climate and ecological crisis

• 02/02/2021
• Isabela Barriga

As a boy growing up on the outskirts of Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park, Koren Gren spent his days surrounded by the natural world. Today, he still does.

• 01/15/2021
• Winrock International

Photos are a great way to not only capture climate programming in action, but to tell one’s story. The Climatelinks photo gallery has more than 230 photos depicting climate and development, from gender and inclusion to natural resource management.
Below are the five most popular photos of 2020. Let us know if you have a favorite photo.

• 12/29/2020
• 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

Half the world’s total mangrove deforestation since 2000 has taken place in Indonesia, where the main driver is conversion for shrimp ponds. A new cost-benefit analysis by the USAID-funded Climate Economic Analysis Development, Investment, and Resilience (CEADIR) Activity sheds light on the financial and economic value of mangrove conservation, including impacts on near-shore fishing and greenhouse gas emissions.

• 08/11/2020
• Dr. Eric Hyman

One of the major challenges in monitoring forests is identifying forest degradation processes. Degradation events can be “small, subtle, and temporary,” making their identification difficult. However, recent years have seen advancements in satellite remote sensing technology, which has in turn revealed changed patterns of illegal deforestation activity in the Amazon rainforest.

• 07/24/2020
• Kelsey E. Herndon, Africa I. Flores-Anderson

Vanilla. It’s one of the world’s great flavors and scents, coveted for centuries for use in everything from baked goods to soaps. And it is also helping expand tree cover in Indonesia. Indonesia’s islands have been inhabited for millennia. Dramatic increases in population over the last few decades and more recent expansions of unsustainable industrial agriculture have shifted what had been a system in balance.

• 07/21/2020
• Christine Chumbler