Climatelinks Photo Gallery

Several recent cyclones have devastated and displaced many people in the Sundarban region of India. In 2021, Cyclone Yaas destroyed around 25 million trees. In the wake of this disaster, around 50 million trees have been planted in the coastal regions of Sundarban. In Satjelia, the bank of the Dutta River plays an important role for fishing communities, but it was severely impacted by the cyclone. Increasing tree plantation programs in this region will help shield against future disasters, which are likely to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change.

A local resident is fishing in the clear retention pond of Ake Gaale’s spring in Ternate city, Indonesia. This picture was taken in October 2018. Ternate city used to experience water crises when the water debit and quality of the Ake Gaale spring—one of the main sources of Ternate City’s Drinking Water Company—decreased significantly. The partnership of USAID IUWASH PLUS, the Ternate city government, and other stakeholders to build infiltration ponds has helped restore the spring. The Spring Vulnerability Assessment and Action Plan (KKMA), created by the Ternate city government and USAID IUWASH PLUS, recommends the creation of a new infiltration pond.

Malang City’s Drinking Water Company is highly committed to maintaining the groundwater debit and quality. A member of Malang's drinking water company is shown taking a sample of the spring water to test the water's physical parameters.

Clumprit Spring is one of the main water sources for Malang City’s Drinking Water Company. Protecting the spring means sustaining the water supply for many families in Malang.

This photograph was taken in Siraha district, Nepal, and depicts women manually uprooting the spring season rice seedlings for transplantation to the main field. Farmers used to rely on rainfall for spring rice cultivation, but now they use underground water sources in the Terai belt of Nepal.

Rice is a staple cereal and plays an important role in the food security and livelihoods of Nepalese people. Terai, the southern belt of Nepal is referred to as the nation's "food belt", where more than eighty percent of farm households are actively engaged in rice production.

This photo was taken in the Siraha district of Nepal on April 22, 2018. It shows a farmer using his livestock to prepare the field, puddling for spring season rice transplantation.

Agriculture with livestock is an important means of livelihood for the rural farmers in Nepal. Rice is the main staple crop and 20% of agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) depends on it. Still, in the rural parts, the agriculture sector lacks the modern technologies and tools for crop production in Nepal.

Play Your Part Foundation engaged students in some basic schools for a clean up exercise through practical education on how they can keep their environment clean, the trash was segregated according to their types.

This is how some water bodies in Ghana has been polluted with plastic through improper disposal of trash. This water body service as a source of water for domestic use in the community, but plastics has been a very big disaster for the water and can not be used by the community members due to its current state.

The Colombian Highlands stand 9700 ft above sea level. The scenery gives space to the mooreland, which is a natural fountain for water that feeds the largest city of the country. The series is a match to a nature conservation effort for the most fragile ecosystem that has water reservoirs and its critical for a sustainability purpose. Vegetation at this altitude takes between 30 and 40 years to grow.

Being a photo enthusiast, I have been travelling near and far to depict interesting human stories for the last few years. As I am also interested in documentary photography, I went to Sunamganj to document the recent flooding situation there.

On 16 May, I arrived in the Tahirpur and Badaghat area of Sunamganj. The flooding situation was terrible. All of the paddy and vegetable fields along with the roads were underwater. According to the District Agriculture Extension Office, 1,301 hectares of Aush paddy field, 1,704 hectares of Boro field and 1,004 hectares of summer vegetables went underwater.

As it was time to harvest the paddy, the farmers were forced to go down into the water and harvest the paddy with great difficulty. The only means of transportation for people in that area was by boat. All roads were submerged. Students could not attend schools. Every house was surrounded by water.

In this photo story, I have tried to capture the breadth of the human suffering caused by this natural hazard.

With a grant from the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests - Clean Cooking Fund, pellet cookstove and renewable energy solutions company SupaMoto, is providing the public with a subscription model allowing customers to pay a monthly fee for pellet fuel while the cost of the stove is financed by carbon credits over a longer period of time. The SupaMoto stove relies on a fan with a batter that is recharged with solar energy. The company provides a delivery service to its customer base and intends to sell 7,000 pellet cookstove subscriptions to urban households over the next two years.

In the five years since the creation of Malawi’s National Charcoal Strategy, the government has leveraged USAID and other donor support to increase the supply of alternative and sustainable cooking energies and promote the use of efficient cook stoves. In 2022, the USAID and UKaid co-funded Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests project launched the $1.1 million dollar Malawi Clean Cooking Fund, an investment tool to accelerate growth of promising energy firms. Central to the strategy is legal, licensed charcoal, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), low-cost and renewable biomass solutions, and fuel-efficient stoves.

“We need help. We need capital. We have too many customers and not enough briquettes,” explains one of Malasha Briquettes' production managers. Lilongwe-based Malasha Briquettes is a sustainable charcoal briquette producer and employs 25 people. The company uses agricultural waste and biomass to produce charcoal used for cooking for more than 500 households as well as five schools and a poultry farm in Lilongwe. In 2021, with support from the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests program, the company achieved its sustainable charcoal/biomass license. In Malawi, wood fuels—charcoal and firewood—are the primary source of cooking energy for the vast majority of the population. Three of four urban households use illegal and unsustainably produced charcoal as their primary source of cooking energy. This paradigm, triggered by the lack of a reliable energy source and widespread poverty, has resulted in massive deforestation across Malawi and exacerbates issues related to food security, economic growth, and health. As Malawi’s deforestation crisis looms, the government has squarely placed the charcoal question in the center of the national debate. In 2017, the government leveraged USAID support and launched the National Charcoal Strategy—a framework to address charcoal related issues with short, mid, and long-term actions. The strategy aligns with national policies, ranging from the National Forestry Policy to the National Energy Policy. With a proper roadmap, in 2020, the Charcoal Regulations and the amended Forestry Policy tightened regulations around the production of charcoal. Central to the strategy is the promotion of sustainably produced charcoal from trees grown on plantations as well as the promotion of alternative cooking fuels like biomass, liquified natural gas, and biogas. Since 2015, the government has granted eight licenses to biomass and sustainable charcoal producers. The MCHF program is supporting several of these firms, including Malasha Briquettes. 

The USAID and UKAID-funded Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF) program is supporting government partners to strengthen the forestry sector’s legal and regulatory framework, and to more effectively investigate and prosecute crimes like illegal tree cutting for the production of charcoal. In addition to the 2020 adoption of the amended Forestry Act, MCHF has backed the government to develop regulations for charcoal production, transportation, and sale. Maximum penalties can reach five million kwacha (~$6,100 USD) or 20 years in prison, depending on the severity of the crime. Before the law was passed, law enforcement struggled to investigate, charge, and prosecute deforestation crimes. Each year between 2016 and 2020, Malawi prosecutors recorded on average 65 convictions for these crimes, and the guilty paid an average of 62,500 kwacha (~$75 USD) in fines. In the wake of the new law and with MCHF’s support, courts are developing their capacity to handle larger case loads and setting the precedent for convictions under the law. In the first three quarters of 2021 alone, Malawi courts recorded 343 convictions and fines averaged 283,000 kwacha (~$345 USD). The 2020 amendment to the Forestry Law also carries a forfeiture clause, putting the trucks and other assets used to transport charcoal at risk. This year the government has impounded more than 25 vehicles, making history as the first time any vehicle used in the illegal transportation of charcoal was forfeited. Vehicle forfeiture is expected to be a strong deterrent against committing forestry crimes.

The USAID and UKaid financed Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF) project is supporting the Government of Malawi to improve forest planning, management, and conservation. With MCHF support, the Department of Forestry is carrying out the National Forestry Inventory, a critical step to systematically collect information on the size and distribution of trees within Malawi’s forests. The National Forest Inventory– a multi-year activity that started in 2016–increases the capacity of the Government to understand forest composition and health and track forest conditions over time. With the data, the Government can make credible estimates on biomass and carbon stocks, understand how Malawi’s forests are changing over time, and how these forests contribute to climate change mitigation and landscape restoration. Pictured, members of the National Forestry Inventory team triangulate the center of a Permanent Sample Plot established in 2016 in the Ntchisi Forest Reserve. This will mark the first time the Government has ever re-inventoried permanent sample plots as part of the inventory.

Malawi is facing a deforestation crisis linked to the increasingly worrisome trade of illegal and unsustainable charcoal. Fighting this trend requires a variety of solutions, alternatives, and government will. One of the most important parts of the puzzle is strengthening public policy and law enforcement tools. The USAID and UKaid-funded Modern Cooking for Health Forests is in its third year and has made some historic gains in this area. The project is supporting the Department of Forestry and has successfully lobbied for a new amendment to the country’s Forestry Act, which treats charcoal as a forest product. The government now has the authority to use stronger penalties, fines, and jail time, as a disincentive to illegal forest activity. Under the amended law, crimes for the production, transport, and commerce of illegal charcoal are treated similarly to other prohibited activities like illegal logging.

A man peers out of a giant kiln used for the production of licensed charcoal in northern Malawi. Over the next several years, legal and licensed charcoal producer Kawandama Hills Plantation will scale up the production of this sustainably produced fuel in Malawi. KHP is a pioneer in sustainable charcoal and obtained its license in 2015. KHP’s 6,500-hectare parcel of land, located in the Viphya Plantation in Northern Malawi, will increase annual production from 300 MT to 1,000 MT of legal charcoal. In 2022, the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests project (USAID and UKaid funded) launched the Malawi Clean Cooking Fund, a $1.1 million dollar grant fund aimed at increasing the supply of sustainable charcoal, alternative energy sources, and efficient cookstoves. KHP accessed over $110,000 to scale production, transport, and marketing of sustainable charcoal. KHP has two points of sale in Lilongwe and also markets charcoal through a network of distributors. KHP and its distributors consistently undercut the illegal charcoal market prices by 20-30 percent. “People know the difference between legal and illegal charcoal,” says Herbet Thondoya, KHPMarketing and Sales Manager. “Now it’s just a matter of time before everyone is using sustainably produced charcoal. “Our plan is to increase production. We want to reach everyone in Malawi. We are thinking big,” Thondoya assures.

In Malawi, wood fuels—charcoal and firewood—are the primary source of cooking energy for the vast majority of the population. Three of four urban households use illegal and unsustainably produced charcoal as their primary source of cooking energy. This paradigm, triggered by the lack of a reliable energy source and widespread poverty, has resulted in massive deforestation across Malawi and exacerbates issues related to food security, economic growth, and health. “We still believe that for the next 20 to 30 years, biomass will dominate Malawi as the main cooking energy. The challenges are making sure that biomass is available to meet the increasing demand,” says Teddy Kamoto, deputy director of Malawi’s Department of Forestry. In the five years since the creation of Malawi’s National Charcoal Strategy, the government has leveraged USAID and other donor support to increase the supply of alternative and sustainable cooking energies, especially charcoal, by licensing new producers.