Blog

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

Using firewood more efficiently and promoting alternative energy in Nepal improves women’s health, changes their lives, and reduces climate vulnerability. Building on a foundation of work at the intersection between environment and health in Nepal, the second phase of the USAID’s Hariyo Ban (Green Forests) Program is scaling up approaches to reduce climate change vulnerability and increase community resilience.

• 07/26/2019
• Judy Oglethorpe, Shant Raj Jnawali

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

Rivers are the world’s main source of clean drinking water, and their economic and environmental value are fundamental to the health of people and ecosystems. However, river basins face interrelated challenges — population growth, industrialization, urbanization, land use changes (including deforestation and land degradation), and changes in water quantity and quality.

• 07/17/2019
• Owen Scott, Fernanda Zermoglio

The Dominican Republic is one of the world’s ten most climate-vulnerable countries and experiences significant gender inequality in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The combination of these issues can threaten the health, safety, and livelihood of women and girls, who are often directly on the frontlines of impacts.

• 07/10/2019
• Jamie Wen-Besson

Many countries around the world have set ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, those countries are now pursuing a breadth of mitigation actions across sectors and at all scales, from local projects to national policies.

• 07/09/2019
• Marian Van Pelt

Climate change and variability have impacts on human health, especially in developing countries. Extreme weather events, increased temperatures, as well as changes in precipitation and sea level rise can all combine in a variety of ways to undermine development gains and impede progress.

• 07/03/2019
• Stephan Hardeman

USAID’s Resilient Waters Program supported the South Africa Department of Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements’ river clean up event to raise awareness about the importance of healthy rivers.

• 07/02/2019
• USAID Resilient Waters

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

Global environmental changes such as landscape conversions alter natural systems and can increase contact between humans and other species.

• 06/27/2019
• Isabela Barriga

Droughts are slow-onset disasters that trigger significant environmental impacts, including loss in agricultural productivity across the globe. The Lower Mekong region is no exception.

• 06/24/2019
• Farrukh Chishtie

Samantabai is a happy woman. The first 'super-champion' farmer in her village, she has been involved in the Climate-Smart Village (CSV) project under the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

• 06/21/2019
• Arun Khatri-Chhetri, Shalika Vyas

In November, I took a canoe trip down a rural western Madagascar river expecting to see a lot of lemurs, but instead I saw thousands of hectares of burned-down forest. The problem extends all over Madagascar, even encroaching on national parks.

• 06/18/2019
• Rob Cohen

Children with dirty hands. Long lines at public water points. Cholera sweeping through a densely populated settlement. In the short-term, these public health issues can often be solved through Water, Sanitation and Hygiene projects – WASH, for short.

• 06/17/2019
• SWP Team

Women in Nepal used to walk to the forest to collect loads of heavy firewood for cooking. The task itself was burdensome, and the resulting smoke from the fires they built at home often caused respiratory problems.

• 06/14/2019
• WWF Team