Blog

The Siete Pecados, or “Seven Sins,” are seven islets in the Philippines named after a legend about seven sisters who drowned after they disobeyed their mother. Siete Pecados Marine Park is a story of a coastal community’s persistence, in partnership with USAID and other partners, to establish a marine protected area with an integrated approach that includes biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and economic growth.

• 04/28/2020
• USAID Biodiversity Integration Case Studies

The current global pandemic from COVID-19 is a potent, pressing example of why the international community must focus more on preparedness and risk analysis for a multitude of disasters. Disasters, from floods to droughts to heightened risks of conflict, are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, environmental degradation, and social tensions.

• 04/22/2020
• Sarah Henly-Shepard, Ali Blumenstock

“Myanmar’s location and physical diversity means climate change takes many forms. In the dry zone, temperatures are increasing, and droughts are becoming more prevalent, while the coastal zone remains at constant risk of intensifying cyclones. Extreme flooding in the current wet season has seen over 190,000 people seek emergency shelter, with the damage to homes, schools, and farms compounding the impact of last year’s floods and those from the year before.”

• 04/21/2020
• Timothy D. May

The USAID Vietnam Forests and Deltas program (VFD), implemented by Winrock International, is supporting the Government of Vietnam’s efforts to better manage natural resources through an innovative Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program, which pays forest owners for conservation. By preventing deforestation and forest degradation, PFES reduces emissions from land use and conserves forest ecosystems that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

• 04/16/2020
• Winrock International

Half of the world’s total mangrove deforestation since 2000 has been in Indonesia, where the main driver has been 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. Income losses from mangrove-supported activities eventually outweigh shrimp revenues in the converted areas.

• 04/15/2020
• Gordon Smith, Eric Hyman

Indonesia is considered a “mega-diverse” country and is home to unique ecosystems and species, including orangutans, tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, and birds of paradise. The country has a high rate of endemism and contains important terrestrial ecosystems, such as mangroves, lowland forests, peatland, swamp forests, and montane forests.

• 04/03/2020
•  James Halperin,  Reed Merrill

Typhoon Maysak crossed Chuuk and Yap States in Micronesia between March 29 and April 1, 2015, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. As USAID’s implementing partner under the Disaster Preparedness for Effective Response project, the International Organization for Migration mobilized to implement USAID’s Typhoon Maysak Reconstruction Project (TMRP).

• 03/26/2020
• Climatelinks

Since 2012, the USAID Vietnam Forests and Deltas program (VFD) has been helping the Government of Vietnam develop and operationalize a national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program that has already directed over USD $500 million to forest owners as financial compensation for maintaining forest cover. For example, Vietnam’s hydroelectric power plants now reward upstream forest owners whose trees keep soil in place, avoiding the sediment buildup that drives up operating costs.

• 03/19/2020
• Lauren Keller

Located in Indonesia’s East Java Province, Kalikatir Village is prone to flash flooding caused by the Klorak River. The river runs through three villages: Dilem and Begaganlimo in the upstream, and Kalikatir in the downstream. A major flash flood that hit Kalikatir in 2017 was a warning for the 1,500 people that live there. Even though there were no casualties due to the flood, the physical damage was substantial, and had a big impact on people’s lives.

• 03/18/2020
• Yovianus Toni Sakera, Nyoman Prayoga, Stella Yovita Arya Puteri

The wheels are spinning, but the vehicle is going nowhere. It’s rainy season in Vietnam, and dirt roads have become rivers of mud. It’s not uncommon for a vehicle to become mired in the muck. But in this case, the vehicle holds much-needed funds that won’t be delivered to community-based forest owners unless a team of determined forest fund staff rescues it. It’s a sticky situation — but one that may not happen much longer.

• 03/13/2020
• Jennifer Norfolk

Southwest Bangladesh is a watery world. Houses perch on steep river banks. Storms pummel fragile coastlines. It’s hard not to see this starkly beautiful place as engaged in a battle between water and land — with the water winning. But the land has a new ally, a living hem of mangrove forests made possible by Winrock International’s Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project, funded by USAID.

• 03/05/2020
• Winrock International

When the government of India set a goal of deploying 175 gigawatts of renewable power by 2022, they understood that changes to their power system's operations were needed to achieve that level of renewable power on the grid. India decided to work with USAID and the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop a comprehensive grid integration study identifying operational pathways that would enable India to efficiently meet its renewable energy target.

• 02/20/2020
• Isabel McCan

The USAID Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment and Resilience (CEADIR) activity designed and implemented a regional activity to accelerate CE private sector investment aligned with national climate change commitments (e.g., Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) and CE policy objectives in the target countries of India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

• 12/30/2019
• Marketlinks Team

“No pilots fail, but no pilots scale.” Dr. Bruce Campbell, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security, lamented this on the first morning of the 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA).

• 12/09/2019
• Justin Kosoris headshot

Since 1991, USAID has been investing in actions that help the Agency in understanding climate change risks and opportunities to reduce vulnerabilities.

• 12/05/2019
• Stephan Hardeman