Blog

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) needs a comprehensive map of development. The country holds the largest contiguous block of rainforest outside of Brazil, but as the map below illustrates, much of the remaining forest falls under mining, oil and logging permits.

• 05/31/2019
• Leo Bottrill

The Ferlo region of north-central Senegal is a vast expanse of dry savannah covering over a third of the country’s total area. With only a few small, scattered settlements, this region is almost exclusively reserved for pastoralism, both by tradition and government policy.

• 05/23/2019
• Agrilinks Team

According to the United Nations, close to 1.7 billion people – almost 25% of the world’s population - rely on forests for shelter, livelihoods, water, food, and fuel security. Forests renew our air supply, as they take in large amounts of carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

• 05/22/2019
• SERVIR Global

Considered a hotspot for biodiversity, the Madre de Dios region of southeastern Peru is an exceptionally fertile landscape. Standing at the edge of the Amazon basin, Madre de Dios has a rich concentration of endemic species—plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. But their habitats are being threatened by human activity.

• 05/14/2019
• SERVIR Global

This month, Climatelinks is featuring geospatial tools and analysis. When it comes to climate change, geospatial tools and analysis provide innovative methods of visualizing drivers, threats and impacts. Emerging trends can also be identified and studied through geospatial analysis, which in turn allows for more strategic positioning of resources.

• 05/10/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

Finding ways to adapt to the effects of climate change is no longer optional for most communities - it is necessary. The question is, what are the range of strategies for adaptation? Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a nature-based and people-centered approach that emphasizes ecosystem integrity as crucial for human resilience to climate change.

• 04/30/2019
• Anila Jacob, Jennifer Kane, Christine Chumbler

Forests are our allies in the global fight against climate change. In addition to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing oxygen, forests also provide sustainable sources of income for forest communities and contribute to water security, which is the foundation for food security.

• 04/27/2019
• Winrock International

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

A new land cover tool originally developed for southeast Asia is now being expanded globally. “Land cover mapping in the Lower Mekong has been challenging in the past, based primarily on outdated maps using different criteria,” said Dr. David Saah, Professor at the University of San Francisco and Managing Principal of the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG).

• 04/10/2019
• Devrin Weiss, Leah Kucera

“My interest in tree planting started when I was very young, when I used to go with my mum to plant trees in the forest, as part of the shamba system of plantation establishment [a Kenyan form of taungya],” recounts Zipporah Matumbi. 

• 03/26/2019
• CIFOR

Many governments recognize agroforestry’s contributions to farmers’ food security and livelihoods, and to climate change adaptation and mitigation, but face challenges in attracting climate finance to expand agroforestry.

• 02/19/2019
• Julianna White

Northern Guatemala, together with neighboring Mexico and Belize, is home to the largest tropical forest north of the Amazon. Like many other tropical forests, the Selva Maya faces pressures from unsustainable logging and land clearing for agriculture.

• 02/07/2019
• Christine Chumbler

“Do your husbands object to your attending class?”

“No, no, no,” say the women.

“With a show of hands, how many of you are now earning money?”

Nearly everyone in class raises her hand.

• 02/05/2019
• Erin Hughes

Conservation organizations have long promoted beekeeping as an activity to sustainably generate incomes and provide incentives to protect ecosystems.

• 01/29/2019
• Mark Donahue, David Miller

This blog features some of our favorite videos that were added to the website in 2018.

• 11/20/2018
• Stephan Hardeman