Climatelinks Photo Gallery

A father and son travel through the mangroves in Barangay San Roque on Bucas Grande Island, Surigao Del Norte, Philippines. These trees in San Roque make up an old growth forest, serving as a vital habitat for biodiversity, and a carbon sink that sequesters huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. The area has been designated as an ecotourism site and strict protection zone through the efforts of USAID and local partners, who conducted a study on the value of ecosystem services these mangroves provide.

Residents of Del Carmen, Siargao Island, Philippines, repair their community’s women’s center destroyed by Super Typhoon Odette in 2021. The new center will host women-led agriculture and livelihood trainings, feature a cold storage facility for the fresh produce the women harvest, and serve as a disaster response hub to help the more than 20,000 residents of Del Carmen prepare for and respond to future climate disasters. USAID will help power the building with renewable energy, boosting resilience and reducing emissions.

Solar lolas (grandmothers) in Sitio Caguing, Philippines, train young women in their Aeta Indigenous community to assemble solar-powered lamps to light their homes. After graduating from a course on how to build and maintain solar-powered lighting systems at Barefoot College in India, the solar lolas became advocates for rural electrification by renewable energy. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity supports their efforts to train the next generation of Indigenous women solar engineers to help their communities transition to climate-friendly energy sources.

This solar lola (grandmother) helps her Aeta Indigenous community in Sitio Caguing, Tarlac, Philippines, electrify their households with clean energy. After completing a six-month training course at Barefoot College in India, she and other solar lolas returned home to electrify their neighbors and help maintain the new solar lamps. “Because of our skills in building solar lamps, we are able to avoid using kerosene, which is expensive and harmful to the environment just to light up our homes. Our children are now able to study at night because of our solar lamps”, she explained. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity supports the solar lolas’ efforts to train the next generation of Indigenous women solar engineers to help their communities continue to transition to climate-friendly energy sources.

This solar lola (grandmother) helps her Aeta Indigenous community in Sitio Caguing, Tarlac, Philippines, electrify their households with clean energy. After completing a six-month training course at Barefoot College in India, she and other solar lolas returned home to electrify their neighbors and help maintain the new solar lamps. “Because of our skills in building solar lamps, we are able to avoid using kerosene, which is expensive and harmful to the environment just to light up our homes. Our children are now able to study at night because of our solar lamps”, she explained. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity supports the solar lolas’ efforts to train the next generation of Indigenous women solar engineers to help their communities continue to transition to climate-friendly energy sources.

These solar lolas (grandmothers) electrified 200 households with solar lamps in their Indigenous community in Sitio Caguing, Tarlac, Philippines. After completing a six-month training course at Barefoot College in India on assembling, repairing, and maintaining solar panels and lamps, they returned home to electrify their neighborhoods and help maintain the new solar lamps. The families who received the new lamps used the savings generated from avoiding kerosene and other unsustainable lighting sources to finance other essential expenses. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity supports the solar lolas’ efforts to transition their community to cheaper, climate-friendly energy sources.

Seawater desalination infrastructure helps island communities in the Philippines adapt to the impacts of climate change, like water scarcity, and access safe drinking water. By tapping into desalinated seawater as a reliable water source, communities can enhance their resilience to the water-related impacts of climate change without needing to transport clean water to the island, a process that emits greenhouse gases and thus further contributes to climate change. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity supports island communities to access desalinated seawater as part of its efforts to boost climate resilience and contribute to an energy-secure Philippines.

A fisherfolk sells dried fish produced in a solar-powered fish drying facility on Calutcot Island, Philippines. The USAID Energy Secure Philippines Activity developed a renewable energy-powered shared service facility to enhance the island community's post-agro-fishery sector. Using the facility's solar-powered dryers, fisherfolk dry their seaweed and fish products faster than usual, increasing their productivity, protecting their products from pests and pollution, and contributing to the island’s climate change mitigation efforts.

Local partners join USAID for the annual waterbird census conducted along the coasts of San Salvador Island and Magalawa Island in the Philippines. The group observes migratory birds such as sandpipers, common kingfishers, little egrets, and Eurasian curlews. The abundance of migratory waterbirds in Masinloc-Oyon Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape indicates a healthy ecosystem. Mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs serve as habitat and food sources for birds and other wildlife, but the impacts of climate change threaten to degrade these ecosystems. By building the capacity of local stakeholders to conduct the annual census, the USAID Sustainable Interventions for Biodiversity, Oceans, and Landscapes project is helping the local community monitor the impacts of climate change on the area to inform future management decisions.

Beth Sarmiento propagates mangroves along the coast of San Salvador Island in Masinloc, Zambales, Philippines. She leads an organization that received funding from USAID’s Sustainable Interventions for Biodiversity, Oceans, and Landscapes project to plant mangrove seedlings to help mitigate climate change. Mangrove forests are not only effective carbon sinks, sequestering four times more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than tropical forests, but they also protect nearby communities from storm surges from typhoons, which are becoming more common because of climate change. In late 2023, the organization successfully planted more than 15,000 seedlings with an 80 percent survival rate in open patches or mangrove rehabilitation areas along the island's coasts.

A tour guide introduces visitors to Sohoton Cove on Bucas Grande Island, Surigao Del Norte, Philippines. Tourists come to see the area's pristine waters, stunning caves, rock formations, and lush forests. Sohoton Cove is also well-known for its biodiversity, including stingless jellyfish, tropical pitcher plants, and hornbill birds. USAID's Sustainable Interventions for Biodiversity, Oceans, and Landscapes project works with local partners in Bucas Grande to boost ecotourism through informational and educational campaigns that target tourists and local community members alike with messages on the ecological and biological importance of the island's landscapes and biodiversity. These campaigns help generate interest in conserving the island's natural resources and biodiversity as they become increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

During a watershed biodiversity assessment in Malaybalay City, Philippines, forest guards and biologists with the USAID-INSPIRE project’s Securing Sacred Areas, Culture, Rivers, and Endangered Biodiversity within Ancestral Domains at the Northern Pantaron Bioregion (SACRED) activity, implemented by Philippine Eagle Foundation, spotted a Mindanao bubble-nest frog (Philautus worcesteri) endemic to the region. Together, Indigenous forest guards from the Bukidnon Higaonon Tribal Association (BUHITA) and SACRED biologists assess the status of watershed biodiversity within BUHITA’s ancestral domain, where the presence of endemic wildlife such as the Mindanao bubble-nest frog indicates clean water.

Elders, Bae Ladie Anggawa (left) and Datu Doslim Lagil-as (right), of the Tigwahanon tribe of San Fernando in the Philippines rehearse their Kuglong woy Saluroy dance at the banks of the Tigwa River in preparation for the second annual Sabit Festival. The festival aims to revitalize cultures and traditions that are slowly being forgotten within the Tigwahanon tribe and promote culture-based conservation. The Sabit Festival is supported by the Philippine Eagle Foundation's USAID-funded Securing Sacred Areas, Culture, Rivers, and Endangered Biodiversity within Ancestral Domains at the Northern Pantaron Bioregion (SACRED) project.

With its stunning cave formations and crystal-clear waters, Somyot Cave in Burgos municipality, Siargao Island, Philippines, is a popular ecotourism destination. The caves also serve as a refuge for animals to escape extreme climate conditions like typhoons, which are being exacerbated by climate change. Through the Sustainable Interventions for Biodiversity, Oceans, and Landscapes project, USAID supports Siargao in boosting potential ecotourism sites and improving natural resource management, helping endemic and even unknown species continue to thrive despite climate change impacts.

All 545 households in Barangay Salvacion, Carmen, Davao del Norte, Philippines, were flooded in January 2024. According to the residents, the last time they experienced a similar event was in early 2000. As a result, they lost their source of livelihood (farmlands and animals) and most of their belongings to the flood. Through the provision of water, hygiene, and sanitation assistance, the affected households were able to access safe and clean water and hygiene promotion. This also reduced environmental health risks such as water-borne diseases. 
 

As the sun rises over the horizon, it casts a golden glow on the tranquil waters of Pogo, Bauang, La Union, Philippines, during a coastal cleanup activity under the USAID INSPIRE project. The scene appears tranquil. Yet, beneath this serene surface lies a harsh reality. The fishermen, who have relied on these waters for their livelihoods for generations, are facing a crisis. They just caught little fish that dawn. Fish catch has dwindled significantly. It is a far outcry from the once bountiful harvest these waters have given in the previous generations. The marine ecosystems are being pushed to their limits, and the repercussions are being felt on these parts of the West Philippines Sea, by those who depend on them the most, leaving them with empty nets and uncertain futures. One of the objective of the INSPIRE project is coastal and marine conservation governance that is more responsive to the needs of the coastal communities with safeguards in place for cases of natural system modification, reducing IUU fishing, and regulating tourism.