Blog

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

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

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land, changing precipitation patterns, increasing temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events are already affecting food security. As extreme events occur more regularly, food systems are likely to be disrupted, creating challenges in food access and potentially causing price fluctuations.

• 02/28/2020
• Stephan Hardeman

In Ethiopian cuisine, onion rules. Stews, sauces, and salads all rely on onions as a star ingredient, and market stalls are stacked high with fragrant bulbs. Across the country, onions contribute significantly to food security, adding taste and nutrients to diets otherwise mainly made up of cereals. Despite their popularity, onion crops yield much less in Ethiopia than in other African countries. Farmers here, like elsewhere, use irrigation to cultivate onions. In fact, farmers prefer to irrigate onion more than other crops, thanks to the high demand and high prices for onions. But yields remain low.

• 02/27/2020
• Agrilinks Team

The game is simple. On a brown digital grassland with a single tree, tiny goats mill back and forth. When you decide how many of those goats to buy or sell and how many to insure, clouds float across the screen and one of two things happens: the clouds stop and rain falls, roughly doubling the goats and producing milk for sale, or the clouds move steadily across the screen and half your herd is wiped out.

• 01/15/2020
• MRR Innovation Lab, Alex Russell

During 2019, the Climatelinks community contributed over 100 resources on a wide range of topics, from clean cook stoves to sustainable forest management.

• 12/12/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

The Climatelinks photo contest received an impressive total of 170 submissions from the Climatelinks community, representing more than 40 countries.

• 12/03/2019
• Steve Hardeman

Climate change poses a significant global threat to food security and nutrition, largely through its impacts on agricultural production.

• 09/24/2019
• Agrilinks Team

To mitigate the food security and economic risks of South Asia’s frequent and intense droughts, scientists and policymakers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) recently joined forces to launch an innovative decision support and agricultural planning system.

• 09/20/2019
• Agrilinks Team

This month we are exploring what it means to build local capacity to address climate change. Building local capacity starts with an understanding of the local stakeholders’ needs.

• 09/10/2019
• Isabela Barriga

The Climate Hazards Center (CHC) has been using the CHC Early Estimates for agroclimatological monitoring and forecast-plus-observation rainfall scenarios since late 2018. The CHC Early Estimates are regional maps that show rainfall conditions for multiple accumulation periods, which are useful for agroclimatic monitoring.

• 09/05/2019
• Agrilinks Team

Measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) are essential for transparency between countries as they track their greenhouse gas emissions. By emphasizing common standards, MRV ensures that countries are on the same page when it comes to the methodologies they use.

• 08/01/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

Many countries have committed to establishing national forest monitoring and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, but lack the technical capacity to achieve their goals. As the science of forest monitoring and MRV advances, these countries face challenges identifying and implementing cost-effective tools and methods that suit their long-term needs.

• 07/30/2019
• Moses Jackson

As part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, member countries must submit national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories, estimating how much carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases they are producing each year.

• 07/23/2019
• Christine Chumbler

The USAID Feed the Future Learning Community for Supply Chain Resilience is happy to share the launch of a new website aimed to provide coffee companies with the resources they need to combat climate change. The Climate Smart Coffee website, launched in early May, was created to increase private sector engagement and funding in smallholder farmer resilience against climate change.

• 07/02/2019
• Kaitlin Sampson