Climatelinks Photo Gallery

A woman from the Quezon municipality of Palawan Province in the Philippines brings home durian tree seedlings to begin her agroforestry venture. Despite having wealth in forest resources, Palawan’s Indigenous communities are often economically impoverished. Without viable options to build economies based on sustainable natural resources use, community members often resort to activities that harm forests, such as wildlife trading, poaching, and extending rice farming into natural areas. These and other unsustainable activities have helped make Palawan province one of the highest emitters of forest carbon emissions in the Philippines, releasing 5.26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually between 2013 and 2017. USAID Protect Wildlife demonstrates how improved management and zoning of forests and protected areas, in addition to the adoption of nature-based livelihoods, can stimulate economic benefits while restoring forest cover in critical watersheds. By supporting adoption of agroforestry practices over 1,000 hectares, Protect Wildlife will help sequester an estimated 31,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Members of Malatgao United Riverside Farmers Association in Quezon municipality, Palawan province received their high-quality durian seedlings from the USAID-funded Protect Wildlife project in the Philippines. They are among the 600 local and indigenous farmers who were trained and engaged by USAID Protect Wildlife in 2019 to plant 44,000 durian seedlings in approximately 400 hectares of forestland in southern Palawan. This agroforestry and conservation agriculture initiative is a way for USAID to provide incentives to farmers who agree to plant high-value fruit trees in forestlands and buffer zones classified as production areas. When successful, this can contribute to increased tree cover in their area, enhanced climate resiliency through healthier forests, and improved conservation of local biodiversity.

Farmers in Quezon municipality, Palawan province are excited to start their own agroforestry ventures through the assistance provided by USAID, through its Protect Wildlife project in the Philippines.

They are among the 600 agroforestry beneficiaries in southern Palawan trained by USAID Protect Wildlife on site preparation, planting, management, and maintenance of their fruit trees intercropped with vegetables, as well as sustainable and biodiversity-friendly farming practices. In 2019, the project distributed 4,000 durian tree seedlings for planting in approximately 400 hectares of forestland. This 2020, USAID Protect Wildlife will be training 1,500 households in southern Palawan and is scheduled to distribute 120,000 seedlings of other high-value tropical fruit trees, such as lanzones (Lansium parasiticum) and rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum).

A great alternative to resource-intensive and emissions-heavy agriculture, climate-smart agroforestry, when done right, can help restore forests and watersheds that boost carbon sequestration, while also enriching local biodiversity.

A farmer in Quezon municipality, Palawan province is excited to start his own agroforestry venture through the assistance provided by USAID, through its Protect Wildlife project in the Philippines.

The project's agroforestry and conservation agriculture activities in southern Palawan is a climate-smart and biodiversity-friendly initiative to get local farmers, indigenous villages, and rural communities engaged in farming practices that are both sustainable and economically viable.

A great alternative to resource-intensive and emissions-heavy agriculture, agroforestry, when done right, can help restore forests and watersheds that boost carbon sequestration, while also enriching local biodiversity and ensuring food and nutritional security.

Genie Abao (in photo), officer of Malatgao United Riverside Farmers Association in Quezon municipality, Palawan province and an indigenous Palaw'an leader of his community, is one the recipients of high-quality durian seedlings from the USAID-funded Protect Wildlife project in the Philippines.

The project rolled out an agroforestry and conservation agriculture initiative for its partner communities in Palawan to engage them in planting high-value fruit trees, like durian, which will not only increase tree cover in their forestlands and contribute to enhancing carbon sinks, but also provide livelihood opportunities for rural families.

Indigenous women farmers in Bataraza, southern Palawan, Philippines, plant upland rice in now-controlled slash-and-burn areas. Bataraza is a municipality nestled in the foothills of Mount Mantaligahan, 140 km south of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, Phiippines. Within the vast Mount Mantalingahan mountain range lies the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape. Covering 120,457 hectares of forest, this protected area serves as the headwater of 33 watersheds and is home to many highly-endangered wildlife species. In terms of farming, slash-and-burn agriculture has been used by the local communities for many generations, but its effect in today’s diminishing state of natural resources has been destructive and unsustainable. The USAID-funded Protect Wildlife Project, in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is helping indigenous people improve upland farming and strengthen local livelihoods so they won't need to expand their slash-and-burn areas or resort to wildlife poaching just to make ends meet. These women farmers have been taught the proper upland farming techniques, such as using a minimum land area for inter-cropping of vegetables and fruit trees. Slash-and-burn agriculture causes deforestation, accidental fires, habitat and species loss, increased air pollution and the release of carbon into the atmosphere, which contributes to global climate change. Photo taken in Palawan, Philippines on June 18, 2019.

The Pasig River runs through the heart of Manila and flows from Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. The river was a major source of water, food and livelihood and offered an alternative mode of transportation. In the 1990s, Pasig River with all its garbage and foul odor, was declared biologically dead. Rehabilitation efforts started after the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission was created in 1999. The photo shows a section of the Pasig River two decades after rehabilitation.

Bataraza, Palawan, Philippines, June 18, 2019.
By Jessie Cereno, Talakatha Creatives.

A woman farmer in Bataraza, southern Palawan walks through a slash-and-burn area of an agricultural section of Mount Mantaligahan, 140 kms south of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, Phiippines.

The Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape encompasses five municipalities, within these municipalities and bordering the protected area are 140,184 hectares of forestlands. The largely forested protected area and the forestlands around it provide various ecosystem services that benefit the local and indigenous communities. These ecosystem services include supplying water, food, medicine, scenic places, fertile soils, and wildlife habitats. The forest cover also prevents the occurrence of destructive forces like flash floods. Thus, it is in the best interest of the communities to have their forests and forestlands placed under an effective management system.

The USAID Protect Wildlife Project builds farmer capacities to use sustainable farming methods. The Project promotes planting a diversity of food crops, creating buffer zones of native trees around existing forest, and the reclamation of degraded land through reforestation and other practices.

Forests are still being cut down and burned to clear land for farming, ranching, and road building. Slash-and-burn contributes to climate change by releasing all the carbon that the forest trees have absorbed over their lifetimes.

Kusor, Palawan, Philippines, June 20, 2019.
By Jessie Cereno, Talakatha Creatives.

In Kusor, southern Palawan, Philippines, women farmers plant cassava to help augment their livelihood and get less resources from the forest. The USAID-funded Protect Wildlife Project, together with partners like Lutheran World Relief and Sunlight Foods Corporation, is teaching and helping communities in southern Palawan to grow high-value crops, such as ube and cassava, and improve their farming practices. Together with local government partners, Protect Wildlife trains beneficiary communities in sustainable farming of high-value crops as an alternative to livelihood practices that adversely impact our natural resources and wildlife habitats. The project partnered with ECLOF, along with local governments and the private sector, to help communities get started on farming high-value crops and connecting them with buyers who can guarantee sustainable purchase of those crops, while redirecting farmers’ activities away from forests to help conserve natural resources and protect biodiversity. By enhancing their livelihoods, these farmers, many of whom are from upland indigenous communities who rely on traditional slash-and-burn farming, exert less pressure on their land, forests, water, wildlife and other natural resources, particularly in the Mount Mantalingahan protected landscape where they live.

Kusor, Palawan, Philippines, June 18, 2019.
By Jessie Cereno, Talakatha Creatives.

In Kusor, southern Palawan, Philippines, an indigenous tribal woman tends to her farmers’ group purple yam (ube) plot. Through diversified and sustainable farming of high-value crops, upland communities have less reason to expand their slash-and-burn further into forests or hunt for wildlife just to make a profit. The USAID Protect Wildlife Project is focusing on activities that promote more sustainable farming practices, particularly for upland indigenous peoples' communities that are farming in or around forests and protected areas. Aside from improving the farming of usual crops, Protect Wildlife is also leading these farmers to plant high-value crops, such as cassava and the tuberous purple yam popularly known as “ube.” The project hopes that with this livelihood approach, upland communities will practice sustainable and environmentally conscious agriculture that puts less strain on forests and other natural resources so they can function well to help slow down and fight climate change.

Bataraza, Palawan, Philippines, June 18, 2019.
By Jessie Cereno, Talakatha Creatives

A woman farmer sows rice seeds in what used to be a slash-and-burn area of Mount Mantalingahan in southern Palawan, Philippines. Slash-and-burn farming has become rampant in the mountain, aggravating occasional timber poaching and hunting of threatened species like the talking mynah and blue-naped parrot, which are popular pets even among the locals.

To establish and strengthen financing support for sustainable agricultural production in target communities within the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, the USAID-funded Protect Wildlife Project holds capacity-building workshops for local farmers in project sites. These farmers are now learning how to make their ancestral land more productive.

Protecting the forest and stopping illegal wildlife trade is a livelihood issue. One cannot just tell the person to stop hunting birds without offering alternative livelihood. By introducing a better source of income or livelihood, controlling the spread of slash-and-burn areas, the project hopes to reduce the human pressure on Mount Mantalingahan, so that the protected area can perform its natural functions in helping mitigate climate change.

In Sugodi, Barangay Cabayugan, Palawan, Philippines, newly cleared forest land for agriculture, with views of pristine forests protected by the CADC and park areas in the background.

Typhoon Haiyan Damage Visible From Secretary Kerry's Airplane Lingering damage from Typhoon Haiyan is visible from the aircraft carrying U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as he arrives in Tacloban City, Philippines, to announce $25 million in fresh U.S. recovery aid on December 18, 2013.