Blog

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

Worldwide, local communities in the tropics and subtropics control 22 percent of the forest carbon in those regions. For several decades, development organizations have promoted sustainable forest use approaches to help communities manage these forests. One such approach is the establishment of community-based forestry enterprises (CBFEs) that sell forest products or services.

• 05/19/2020
• Mark Donahue, Ian Deshmukh

The Amazon region is home to 1.6 million Indigenous Peoples, all of whom depend on the region’s forest and water resources for their material and cultural survival. Studies have shown that deforestation rates are much lower in places where Amazonian Indigenous Peoples have strong land tenure rights, making Indigenous Peoples important allies in biodiversity conservation.

• 05/12/2020
• USAID Biodiversity Integration Case Studies

This common sighting in the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon portrays a "buoyer," a person whose job consists of untying timber that has floated to the banks of the river. The timber is on a downstream journey that takes over 24 hours. Nearly 40% of the Amazonian population in Peru relies economically on the timber value chain, including over 250,000 families, mostly of indigenous descent.

• 05/08/2020
• Climatelinks

As one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, Peru has an abundance of natural resources that have represented natural wealth throughout the nation’s history. However, this richness is not often fully understood and has been unsustainably managed as a result. Over the past decade, an increasing turn toward a green economy has helped shift the way that Peru’s natural resources are viewed.

• 04/24/2020
• Paloma Vásquez

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

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

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

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

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

• 08/25/2016

• 07/14/2016

• 06/16/2016