Climatelinks Photo Gallery

This was a very interesting flash flood that lasted about three days in Kafue district (Zambia)

The ‘Midday Meal Scheme’ is a school meal programme of the Government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school going children nationwide. The program supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary & upper primary classes in Government, Government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme & alternate innovative education centers. Madarsa & Maqtabs is supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan & National Child Labour Project Schools are run by the Ministry of Labour.

Through this scheme, the Indian Government serves 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools & education guarantee scheme centers. It’s the largest such program in the world. This picture shows rural school children who are participating in the above mentioned ‘Midday Meal Scheme’ program during their lunch at a school campus in the East Medinipur district, West Bengal, India.

As the impact of climate change on coffee becomes more evident, producers and buyers question the intensive cultivation methods, which rely on inorganic fertilizers and full sun exposure, promoted during the last decades. Deforestation is another consequence of intensive cultivation, as producers clear forest to maximize yields. Deforestation releases greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. This isn’t the type of change that will sustain coffee cultivation today or in the future.

Solidaridad, an international civil society organization with over 50 years of experience in developing solutions to foster more sustainable supply chains, work with farmers to produce more on less land, it is what we call the Coffee of the Future, which protects the forest within farms and surrounding areas.

It has reduced its reliance on inorganic fertilizers; it’s produced in the shade and uses climate-resistant varieties. It also makes economic sense to producers. Over 10,000 producers across Latin America are already producing the Coffee of the Future.

This photo was taken in La Celia, Risaralda, Colombia, by Juan Manuel Cornejo. Coffee producer Orlando Castañeda appears in this photo, working in the shade on a coffee plantation as part of the Coffee of the Future program by Solidaridad 

In February 2020, a team of USAID staff from E3's Global Climate Change Office and MSI consultants visited a field site in Siem Reap province to conduct a focus group discussion with beneficiaries and farmers of Cambodia's Rice Field Fisheries II Project. The purpose of the Agency-wide Climate Risk Management (CRM) evaluation was to gain a better understanding of how climate risks to USAID activities are being managed and how the CRM policy supports climate-resilience development. From February 20-26, the team conducted key informant interviews and focus group discussions for five USAID/Cambodia activities in three provinces: Sen Monorom, Preah Vihear, and (photographed here) Siem Reap. One finding from this group discussion in the photograph was that farmers were employing adaptive management practices, such as prioritization for at-risk community groups in the rice field fisheries. In this way, beneficiaries were managing climate risks affecting USAID programming and development results.

Waste is an overlooked and significant contributor to the climate crisis. Product manufacturing, distribution, as well as managing the resulting waste after its use, all result in GHG emissions and contribute to global climate change. USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) program – the agency’s flagship program for combating global ocean plastic pollution – works to empower women in the solid waste management sector, who have a sizable impact on reducing global ocean plastic pollution and lessening waste’s impact on climate change as they work around the world to capture and prevent waste from leaking into the environment and put plastics back into the circular economy.

CCBO program grantee, Project Zacchaeus, works to empower women and youth as ocean plastic pollution and climate leaders in their communities. Taken in the Spring of 2021 in Puerto Princesa City, Philippines, a waste collector and grant participant, or "Eco-Warrior," poses with aggregated waste from her community.

USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean program works to combat ocean plastics pollution and reduce waste-linked climate impacts by improving local waste management systems and recycling. In the Philippines, USAID is working to build supportive and sustainable enabling environments for circular economies that can mitigate climate change and adapt systems in response to actual and expected climate effects. Through its grantee, Project Zacchaeus (PZC), USAID is empowering informal waste collectors, known as “Eco-Warriors,” to build skills, foster leadership, and increase safety protections and livelihood opportunities while improving community waste services that reduce plastic pollution and reduce waste-linked greenhouse gas emissions. One of the Eco-Warriors, pictured here, is dressed in personal protective equipment provided by PZC's grant under CCBO during the Spring of 2021.

USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) program – the agency’s flagship program for combating global ocean plastic pollution – is providing economic recycling incentives and reducing emissions from transporting to distant recycling markets. The program grantee, the Plastics Credit Exchange (PCX), is implementing the Aling Tindera Network, a local waste to cash system to enable community members to sell plastics to local, women-owned businesses in exchange for cash. Recyclables are then routed directly to local, responsible recycling facilities. Supporting the creation of a market for ubiquitous community plastic waste also reduces the environmental impacts of plastics, helps to clean up communities, and puts cash back in the pockets of community members. In just two weeks, one USAID-supported Aling Tindera partner, Aling Janine (pictured here), not only diverted over 800 kilograms of plastic waste away from the streets of Barangay 161, but has also helped her neighborhood find ways to make extra income while cleaning up.

USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) program – the agency’s flagship program for combating global ocean plastic pollution – eliminates plastic pollution directly at its source, working at the local level to fix land-based waste management systems and institute more sustainable, resilient practices. Current systems not only perpetuate environmental plastic leakage—amounting to an estimated 8 million tons of plastic flowing into the ocean each year—but fuel other real and serious impacts, including growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change. The Philippines-based non-profit and CCBO grantee, Communities Organized for Resource Allocation (CORA), helps to transform single-use plastics and other waste gathered at coastal clean-ups (pictured here) into new and recycled products to reduce plastics pollution and waste-linked emissions in the Philippines and increase awareness in local communities.

In this photo, it is seen that a female LSP named Jesmin Akter is inseminating native cattle at Ramu, Cox's Bazar which is not a common sight in Bangladesh. Women have been empowered in a number of ways and women's engagement in artificial insemination in cattle brings a new dimension to it. Her family is getting economic support from her artificial insemination activity which is now becoming a common scene in her area. She used to attend 30-40 calls in a month and earns 12000 to 15000 thousand per month doing this activity. She is available with her service during monsoon times and prepares her well with dress and gumboots to avoid climatic uncertainties in a muddy rural area. Farmers believe her and praise her for her dedicated service, which brings economic progress and prosperity to her family and earns her respect.

In this photo, LSP Roksana Parveen, a mother of two children, is vaccinating an animal with the FMD (foot and mouth disease) vaccine before monsoon. Foot and mouth disease is an epidemic mostly seen during and after the onset of the rainy season. This disease causes harm to animals in ways such as loss of production, loss of productivity, etc. It also increases farmers' tension because a remedy is costly. To mitigate these risks, trained LSP Roksana Parveen is vaccinating cattle against FMD at Koiarbill Union under Chakaria Subdistrict of Cox's Bazar. She used to vaccinate 200-250 cattle each month in addition to providing treatment. This service creates economic opportunities for her family as she earns 5000-8000 taka per month by providing this service. She can now become a change agent to farmers as well as bearing the light of hope to her family. She is popularly known as Doctor Apa by villagers and she is well accomplished in her community. 

In this photo, it is seen that LSP Asma Akter provides on field demonstration to a rural farmer about the improved techniques of fodder cultivation which is a new technology in her community. The improved variety fodder is capable of growing in low lying and waterlogged lowlands. Her community people own land which mostly remains underwater and barren. Asma's help can increase farmers income from cattle as they can now produce fodder in water clogged land and thus increase their farm production. As the climate changes, farmers needs to adapt with various dire climatic consequences. Asma is willing to extend her help to those farmers in her community who own land and cattle farms. By providing her on field service, Asma has helped more than 20 farmers in her community and has become a change agent in her community. She received additional income and honor from her community, which is very rare. Asma feels proud for her role towards benefitting the people in her community.

This photo shows the FOSA youth group of southwestern Madagascar in action, cleaning up previously burned areas in the protected area and planting seedlings from their successful tree nursery to help with reforestation efforts. The Menabe Antimena Protected Area is experiencing unprecedented rates of deforestation - at this rate the forest within the protected area may be gone in 4 years. A complex set of issues has contributed to the destruction of this protected area, but perhaps the biggest contributing factor is the massive influx of migrants to the area who are fleeing famine and poverty in the drought stricken south of Madagascar. These climate migrants participate in the illegal cultivation of maize and other crops within the protected area to survive - the demand for these illegal products is mostly being driven by a corrupt network of powerful corporations. If this unique dry forest disappears, the already dry region will likely experience desertification similar to the south, resulting in a second crisis for the region. Youth groups like FOSA provide a ray of hope in the midst of this dire situation - they recognize the threats to their own livelihoods through the destruction of their local environment, and are taking the reforestation of the region into their own hands. With the support of the USAID Mikajy activity in Madagascar, this youth group started a tree nursery to help reforest the protected area with native tree species as well as to provide economic benefit to FOSA members. They sell their seedlings at a modest price, and help others join in the reforestation efforts. They also sell cash crops in addition to native tree species. Tetra Tech ARD is the implementing partner for USAID Mikajy.

Mrs. Taghreed, an active member of Disi Women Cooperative, has been working in these nurseries located in Wadi Rum, Aqaba Governorate, Jordan. These nurseries aim to preserve and grow seedlings, and to be planted in their natural habitat, at the heart of the desert. Mrs. Taghreed is supporting and providing for her family by working in the Mitsubishi Corporation funded “Wadi Rum Ecosystems Restoration Project”. 

This activity improves the livelihoods of Wadi Rum locals, especially women, through ecosystem conservation and restoration. This activity works with Disi women cooperative (DWC), a local women’s community-based organization with 300 women members that was established in January 2010, targeting Bedouin women of the Disi basin villages to improve their lives. DWC main goals are:

Women’s empowerment
Provision of jobs and business opportunities to Disi women to improve their livelihoods
Environment Protection

Mitsubishi Corporation supports this program as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, providing a fund for WADI for Sustainable Ecosystems Development. This funded program is called “Wadi Rum Ecosystems Restoration Project”.

Active members of Disi Women Cooperative have been working in these nurseries located in Wadi Rum. These nurseries aim to preserve and grow seedlings to be planted in their natural habitat, at the heart of the desert.

These women are supporting and providing for their families by working in the Mitsubishi Corporation funded “Wadi Rum Ecosystems Restoration Project”.

An active member of Daba’s Community (Jiza District, Amman, Jordan), working on restoring rangelands in Daba’s Village, being an active member of the youth in his community, and taking action toward climate change. WADI works with Daba’s Restoration Site, in collaboration with the Hashemite Fund for the Development of Jordan Badia, to provide technical support and assistance, which will increase the native seedlings survival rate. The partner organization involved in this program is Hashemite Fund for the Development of Jordan Badia, under the United States Forest Service funded Watershed Development Initiative.

Active members of Daba’s Community (Jiza District, Amman, Jordan), participating in a practical training on planting techniques and quality inspections. These community members gained knowledge and skills to sustain their lands, using scientifically correct techniques.

WADI works with Daba’s Restoration Site, in collaboration with the Hashemite Fund for the Development of Jordan Badia, to provide technical support and assistance, which will increase the native seedlings survival rate.

Hashemite Fund for the Development of Jordan Badia is a project under the United States Forest Service Funded Watershed Development Initiative.