Climatelinks Photo Gallery

Irrigation systems help smallholder farmers conserve water and improve the quality of their crops. Having access to agricultural technologies can help farmers increase their resilience to climate change.  

IBIS Rice is grown by Cambodian farmers committed to the strictest environmental standard: they don't use chemicals and don't allow trees to be cleared or wild animals to be poached on their land. In return, they are paid a premium for their crop. As a result, a uniquely diverse ecosystem in northern Cambodia is being safeguarded from destruction and a number of endangered species are once again prospering, including the Giant Ibis, Cambodia's national bird. 

Working with community-based ecotourism (CBET) sites to improve the livelihoods of people living in and around Prey Lang forests located in the northern and southeast of Cambodia. To target the Cambodian tourist market, it is important to provide easy access to information on ecotourism sites so that potential visitors can identify places and activities that interest them and can make plans to visit. 

The most scenic Mekong River landscape of the Koh Samseb Community-Based Ecotourism in Kratie province of Cambodia. The wide water basin full of human-uninhabited and inhabited green islands such as water forests, giant fishes, and endangered bird species. Visiting the Koh Samseb will not only expose visitors to the mighty Mekong River but also provides them with opportunities to contribute to social development and conservation activities. 

The road trip to Ririma village was long and dusty, the desert hot and desolate. We stopped at a watering point in Kambinye village when we noticed pastoralists fetching water with their animals. We spoke to a lady who said that she and her entire village were forced to leave their home and head south. They had walked for about 30 kilometers in search of water, food and suitable pastures for their families and animals.

Members of the Malawi National Forest Inventory team taking plot measurements inside Dzalanyama Forest Reserve situated in Malawi’s Central Region. USAID supports the Government of Malawi to collect and analyze forest data. This helps Malawi to take stock of forests, including forest cover. The degraded land is restored through natural forest regeneration.  In these efforts, USAID is supporting Malawi to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land. The initiative aims to prevent the damage caused by human activities in the forest reserves.

Clean water is already hard to come by in the Korogocho (Swahili for shoulder to shoulder) slums of Nairobi, but when heavy rainfall leads to flooding, it only exacerbates the situation. Clean water sources get contaminated, leaving residents vulnerable to many risks, including waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

USAID/Malawi supports sustainable forest management in Malawi. This picture shows a forest ranger measuring tree diameter in Namizimu Forest Reserve near a customary land in Mangochi district in Malawi’s Southern Region, during the 2021 National Forestry Inventory (NFI) exercise. The NFI enables the Government of Malawi to take stock of its forest resource status and quantify Malawi’s contributions towards climate change abatement through land-based interventions. Photo credit: Michael Chirwa, Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF), July 2021.

USAID has partnered with the Government of Malawi, first to assess landscape restoration opportunities, then to develop a cross-sectoral strategy to achieve landscape restoration. Now, through the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests Project co-funded by USAID and FCDO, the Government of Malawi is implementing landscape restoration and monitoring progress towards Malawi’s ambitious commitment to the Bonn Challenge and AFR100 to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

This picture shows a plantation in the Viphya Forest Reserve, established by Consolidated Processing Industries, with funding from USAID. The trees seen are 2.5 years old and are thriving.  These trees, together with the larger Viphya Forest Reserve, provide employment for Malawians and essential water for residents of Mzuzu City and surrounding areas.  The Forest Reserve itself is also source of rivers that flow into Lake Malawi which helps to sustain fisheries and livelihoods along the Lake. 

In Malawi, healthy forests provide critical products and services for rural communities. Makwezu Village Forest Area Committee in Nkhata Bay district, Northern Malawi, has integrated fish farming in their community forest management drive. The committee has established a fishpond to provide an alternative source of livelihood, tied to forest conservation. The Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests Project, co-funded by USAID and FCDO is supporting the Government of Malawi to sustainably manage its forest resources through nature-based initiatives including fish farming, beekeeping and others.

USAID/Malawi supports sustainable forest management and forestry friendly enterprises. This picture shows Pyxus Agriculture Limited concession within the Viphya Plantation, captured during a field visit with the USAID/Malawi SEG Office Director. The main product harvested from the plantation is firewood, which is supplied to tobacco farmers contracted by Alliance One Tobacco Malawi Limited. The firewood is used for curing tobacco. Post-harvest, some residual woods (lops and tops) do not meet the criteria for tobacco farmers’ firewood requirements due to smallness in diameter (below 6cm) or lengths (below 1m). The residual wood is used to produce legal, licensed and sustainable charcoal. The charcoal provides an alternative to the illegal charcoal in order to reduce deforestation through the illegal cutting of trees.

USAID works to increase the supply and marketing of sustainable charcoal, to offset demand for illegal and unsustainably produced charcoal from Malawi's indigenous forests.  This picture shows kilns for production of legal, licensed, and sustainably produced charcoal.  The charcoal provides Malawian communities living in urban centers of charcoal demand with an alternative source of cooking/heating energy.

In Malawi, illegal cutting of trees for charcoal and timber production is the main driver of deforestation in the remaining natural forest reserves. In this picture, a member of the Village Natural Resources Management Committee monitors illegal activities in Kaning’ina Forest Reserve located in Nkhata Bay district, Northern Malawi. The monitoring exercise is part of an initiative to identify hotspots where illegal cutting of trees is occurring and work towards restoring deforested areas through natural regeneration. The Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests, co-funded by USAID and FCDO, supports the Government of Malawi to restore forests. Malawi targets to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

May, 2020, Koman Hydropower Reservoir, North of Albania. Koman Hydropower Plant is the second largest HP plant in Albania, constructed in 1980's.

A canoer enjoys the local ecotourism sports and activities the locals offer.

Local ecotourism offers sustainable income to communities living around the Koman Hydropower Reservoir.

Photo taken in Koman Hydropower Reservoir in Albania. 

Many locals pursue income-generating activities, such as guided boat tours for tourists, with little environmental impact, while providing for sustainable livelihoods for local communities.

KESH -Albanian Power Corporation has recently devised the Corporate Responsibility Strategy, aiming at supporting local economic activities with positive environmental and social impacts.

“My name is Mafija Begum. I started farming to earn money for my family because my husband was the only one earning an income in our family. I wanted to stand by his side and earn together.”

A partnership between USAID-funded Integrated Land and Resource Governance and PepsiCo in West Bengal is empowering women potato farmers like Mafija through sustainable farming practices that reduce emissions and increase resilience to climate impacts. At the same time, empowering farmers like Mafija increases household income and resilience while supporting PepsiCo’s and USAID’s climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments.

“People could not believe that women could be farmers. We decided we would show them that we can,” she says.