Blog

To address these challenges, USAID partnered with the Sustainable Ocean Fund (SOF), to make pioneering impact investments into marine and coastal projects and enterprises. The $132 million Fund invests in projects across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific that aim to build resilience in coastal ecosystems and create sustainable economic growth and livelihoods in the blue economy.

• 11/23/2021
• Jennifer Kane, Sashi Jayatileke

Between 2014 and 2015, Jamaica experienced one of the worst seasons of drought in recent history. The impact on the Jamaican economy, especially rural livelihoods, was devastating. According to reports, the annual agricultural production declined by 30 percent from 2013 to 2014. This, along with brush fires, resulted in a $J1 billion ($6.5 million) loss for the economy.

• 11/11/2021
• Kimberly Weller

The Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) countries are on the front lines of the climate crisis, experiencing some of the most severe impacts of climate change, ranging from prolonged periods of drought to increasingly strong tropical storms and hurricanes.

• 11/02/2021
• Christine Chumbler

In November 2020, two back-to-back category 4 hurricanes, Eta and Iota, struck Central America, making landfall on the coast of Nicaragua, near its border with Honduras, and also affecting El Salvador and Guatemala. Altogether, they caused an estimated one billion US dollars in damage. Despite such impacts, the region was better able to prepare for and respond to Eta and Iota using space-based technologies.

• 10/26/2021
• Betzy Hernandez Sandoval, Emil Cherrington, Kel Markert, Eric Anderson, Daniel E. Irwin, Ashutosh Limaye, Peter Epanchin, Bathsheba F. Bryant-Tarpeh

There is growing momentum in the international community to ramp up climate finance for mitigation and adaptation actions. Undoubtedly, a focus on climate change adaptation in the developing world must be a priority for the financing.

• 09/08/2021
• Mohamed Bakarr

Countries in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean have always been vulnerable to natural hazards, but climate change trends project that disasters—hurricanes, tropical storms, flash floods, drought, and extreme heat—are becoming more frequent, intense, costly, and time-consuming to recover from.

• 08/31/2021
• Wendy Putnam

Learn how Youth Climate Communicator Dainalyn Swaby is rallying young Jamaicans to make climate change a priority in their livelihoods.

• 08/10/2021
• Kimberly Weller

3 ways USAID helps El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change

• 08/03/2021
• USAID

Air pollution is a major issue in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), where its impacts not only contribute to climate change, but also create major health risks for those living in the region.

• 07/08/2021
• Lindsey Spanner

Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformational scale.

• 06/14/2021
• Tedi Rabold

Geospatial services can benefit the people and the environment of the Amazon by supporting communities in monitoring their territories and addressing the various challenges they face.

• 06/14/2021
• Jennifer Twyman, Mariola Acosta, Marina Irigoyen

According to the recently released Amazon Vision 2020 Report, USAID and its global partners improved the management and conditions of key landscapes in the Amazon, working on more than 48 million hectares.

• 06/10/2021
• USAID

Geospatial services can benefit the people and the environment of the Amazon by supporting communities in monitoring their territories and addressing the various challenges they face, such as deforestation, illegal mining, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

• 05/13/2021
• SERVIR Global

When the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu were threatened by forest fires last September, firefighter Jessica Morón and her wildland firefighting team battled the flames to protect the historic sanctuary and its surrounding biodiversity.

• 05/06/2021
• USAID Publications

Brazil is one of the six countries of the Amazon basin covered by SERVIR-Amazonia, including Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Ecuador, Suriname.

• 04/23/2021
• SERVIR Global