Climatelinks Photo Gallery

A farmer waters young acacia trees during the dry season in Tien Phuoc, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. USAID's Green Annamites Project provides support to the Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces to increase carbon stocks by conserving and strengthening existing carbon reservoirs and reducing emissions from changes in land use practices. The Project promotes the development of sustainable acacia production and has collaborated with cooperatives and the private sector to provide environmentally friendly seedlings and improve technical and managerial capacity. Project participants planted more than 7,200 hectares of FSC-certified timber plantations that sequester more than 323,000 tons of carbon dioxide and have increased household income by 10 to 15 percent.

People living in coastal zones, like the woman and child pictured, depend on mangrove forests for their livelihoods and household needs. Mangroves protect nursery habitats for freshwater and marine species, provide a source of income from tourism, and supply timber for construction. Mangroves also store more carbon per unit area than any other major forest type in Guatemala — equivalent to nearly 900 tons per hectare. However, mangroves currently occupy less than 30 percent of their original extent nationally and declined by more than 25 percent between 2010 and 2016. During the dry season, mangroves are susceptible to fire from illegal land clearing, while they are permanently threatened by sugar cane plantations and shrimp farms. USAID’s Guatemala Biodiversity project works with the National Council of Protected Areas, local authorities, and rural communities to protect mangrove forests by preventing and controlling forest fires and monitoring forest cover. The project generates weekly monitoring reports on fire status and climatological information that is used to prevent and control fire. They are also helping community members establish guidelines to create a new governance model for a multiple-use protected area.

Technical staff of A Rocha-Ghana and a community women’s group member collect field data in the West Gonja District in Northern Ghana to help plan forest restoration activities in areas degraded by charcoal production. This work is part of an effort by the Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS) and SERVIR West Africa to help local, regional, and national stakeholders develop a tool based on earth-observation technology to identify and monitor charcoal production sites and survey tree cover density change. The resulting maps serve as a useful advocacy tool for engaging stakeholders and decision-makers at the district, local, and community levels in designing climate change mitigation interventions and addressing behavior change. Charcoal production degrades forests in many African countries, and successful programs to reduce this degradation either by preventing it in the first place or reforesting degraded land can yield valuable lessons for other geographies facing similar challenges.

This young man from the Indigenous community of Junín Pablo in the region of Ucayali, Peru, makes his way home after a day's work in the forest. Over 450,000 families in the Peruvian Amazon depend on forests for their livelihoods. Many of these communities are seeing their forests lost to illegal logging and the expansion of smallholder farming. As these activities degrade forests and threaten forest biodiversity, they also release carbon from the nearly 7 billion metric tons stored in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. USAID Pro-Bosques works to advance sustainable forest management by strengthening forest sector governance; promoting the legal timber harvest and increasing forest sector competitiveness, as well as empowering Indigenous communities, like Junín Pablo, through sustainable forest practices that can improve their livelihoods.

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.

Sierra Leone’s coastal areas provide a vital source of livelihoods for communities through fish and oyster production. In addition, the country’s almost-1,500 square kilometers of coastal mangrove forests protect against extreme storms and are carbon-dense, storing 194 tons of carbon per hectare. Yet these benefits are eroding as rice fields and other land uses displace the forests. Forest area has decreased by approximately 25 percent over the past two decades in four primary coastal mangrove regions of Sierra Leone. USAID’s West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change program (WA BiCC) engages community members to restore lost mangrove forests. WA BiCC’s ecosystem-based mitigation and adaptation activities are helping conserve and restore these mangroves, increasing community resilience and carbon sequestration.

“Mangrove Forest Guardians” help protect the extensive lowland swamp forests and mangrove ecosystems that surround the Keakwa Village in the Mimika District, the southern part of Indonesia’s Papua province. Mimika mangroves are the most biologically diverse in the world and provide a wealth of natural resources, most notably fish and crabs, for local livelihoods. They also harbor up to 4,680 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare—some of the highest stocks found globally. As these mangroves are facing a significant threat of forest and land use conversion, they are rapidly emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. USAID’s LESTARI helps conserve these unique ecosystems and enhance livelihood resilience in the Keakwa Village and nearby communities to develop secure, stable, and sustainable livelihoods. LESTARI supports village clusters to develop co-management agreements to improve forest and mangrove management that include mapping, sustainable management of natural resources, and conservation monitoring activities.

Kamala Magar, a farmer from the disadvantaged indigenous Magar ethnic group in Nepal, is a user of the Saripakha Multiple Use Water System (MUS). The MUS provides piped water from a spring source to 20 families for domestic use and vegetable production. The new system saves several hours of labor a day for women and girls who are traditionally tasked with carrying water. The MUS community management plan includes planting trees and building fences to protect the area around the spring. The new trees stock carbon, while piped water reduces the need to burn wood to purify water, thus reducing greenhouse gases. Montview Church, an organization in Denver, Colorado, supported this MUS and iDE—with support from USAID, DFID, the EU, and others—has developed 500 MUS in Nepal, serving 80,000 people.

This photo was taken from Modhupur, Tangail, Bangladesh on the date 19 July 2018. In this photograph, farmers are collecting pineapple fruit. According to Madhupur Agriculture Office, The fruit was cultivated on 8,500 hectares of land last year and on more than 10,500 hectares in this year. This fruit cultivation boosts up agroforestry industry in Bangladesh. Information about carbon sequestration potentiality of different agroforestry species in Bangladesh to combat with the pessimistic impact of climate change. Agroforestry is a land-use system receiving wider recognition not only in terms of agricultural sustainability but also in issues related to climate change. The potentiality to sequester carbon by agroforestry species in sub-tropical regions like Bangladesh is promising.

This photo was taken from Dohar, Dhaka, Bangladesh on the dated 25 June 2019. In this photograph women are harvesting chilies. Chilies plants can live between 1.5 - 15 years depending on the species. Agroforestry is responsible for almost 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture is the root cause of 80% of tropical deforestation.Global farming has reached a crisis point. Intensified land use and inefficient human systems threaten food security and drive biodiversity loss and climate change. Half the world’s fertile soil is already lost and, with an estimated 60 years of topsoil left, we need a farming strategy that restores soil and secures food production. It is possible to put global agriculture into a climate-smart future and the solution already exists. Practiced around the world, it’s known as regenerative agroforestry.For save the world from climate crisis we need to concentrate to agro based forestry.

Young people from the Vegas de Segovia Indigenous Reservation in Zaragoza, Antioquia (Colombia) get ready for planting day.

The project has not only changed the environmental landscape of the region, but also the lives of the 43 families in charge of establishing the nursery, preparing the seedlings, fencing the plot, digging the holes and planting the trees.

In addition to rehabilitating 100 hectares of degraded land, the project has involved female heads of households in an associated honey production project, incorporating 600 beehives to allow them to earn a decent income through the sale of honey.

The following entities participated in this project: the regional government of Antioquia via its Secretariats for Mining and the Environment; the Corporation for the Sustainable Management of Forests (Masbosques) and the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Location and date the photo was taken: Municipality of Zaragoza, Antioquia. The photograph was taken on January 24, 2019.

Who is depicted in the photo: The photo shows young people from the Vegas de Segovia Indigenous reservation in the municipality of Zaragoza, Antioquia (Colombia).

What activity is depicted in the photo: Preparation for planting activities.

How the activity addresses climate change: The rehabilitation of degraded land using Acacia mangium trees restores degraded ecosystems and generates alternative livelihoods for families in the region.

Name of the relevant program receiving USAID support: The Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of USAID.

Names of partner organizations involved in the program: The Vegas de Segovia Indigenous Reservation from Zaragoza, Antioquia (Colombia) and the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of USAID.

The panorama shows the extent of the recovery of abandoned, unproductive and degraded land over the last three years in the Municipality of Caucasia, Antioquia (Colombia). The Artisanal Gold Mining Activity began its first pilot rehabilitation project planting just 12 hectares of Acacia mangium and ended up rehabilitating 2,000 hectares, planting 2,000,000 trees in the process.

Location and date the photo was taken: Municipality of Caucasia municipality, Antioquia (Colombia). The photograph was taken on June 14, 2019.

Who is depicted in the photo: Rehabilitation pilot for the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity.

What activity is depicted in the photo: Acacia mangium forest on rehabilitated land.

How the activity addresses climate change: Rehabilitating lands with Acacia mangium has restored habitats and supported species. A study evaluating the resurgence of wild flora and the presence of birds and mammals in the plantations developed by the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity showed that the plantations have allowed the incursion of birds and mammals and the dispersal of seeds, which contributes to the survival of fauna and wild plant populations.

Name of the relevant program receiving USAID support: The Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of USAID.

Names of partner organizations involved in the program: The Fish and Crops Association and the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of USAID.

The Artisanal Gold Mining Activity planted two million Acacia mangium trees on degraded and desertified land in Antioquia, where the illegal extraction of gold was previously undertaken. Many people from the region participated in the rehabilitation activities, especially 169 female heads of household who took care of the nurseries and planted trees.

Location and date the photo was taken: Colombian Community Council of Chilona - El Salto, Zaragoza, Antioquia. The photograph was taken on October 1, 2019.

Who is depicted in the photo: The hands of an Afro Colombian woman.

What activity is depicted in the photo: Planting Acacia mangium seedlings.

How the activity addresses climate change: Rehabilitating lands with Acacia mangium has restored habitats and supported species. A study evaluating the resurgence of wild flora and the presence of birds and mammals in the plantations developed by the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity showed that the plantations have allowed the incursion of birds and mammals and the dispersal of seeds, which contributes to the survival of fauna and wild plant populations.

Name of the relevant program receiving USAID support: The Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of USAID.

Names of partner organizations involved in the program: The regional government of Antioquia and its Secretariats for Mining and the Environment; the Corporation for the Sustainable Management of Forests (Masbosques), and the Artisanal Gold Mining Activity of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Huehuetenango, Guatemala, Coop. Peña Roja en reforestación con donativos de Finca el Injerto, para la mitigación climática (regeneración y reforestación).

Location and date the photo was taken: Royal Botanic Garden (RBG) nursery, Al-Balqaa Governorate, Jordan; 19 January 2020
Who is depicted in the photo: Carob seedlings at the RBG nursery.
What activity is depicted in the photo: Native Carob tree seedlings grown in the nursery to be outplanted in Jordanian forests as part of reforestation and alleviation of climate change efforts.
How the activity addresses climate change: Carob is a native Jordanian tree and an important part of Jordan’s forests. Carob is usually grown for its edible pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens. The ripe, dried pod is often ground to carob powder, which is used to replace cocoa powder.The restoration of such forests helps mitigate climate change by storing carbon, halting land degradation and fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Additionally, it has an aesthetic side, can assist in poverty alleviation due to its economic return, and in fighting hunger and malnutrition due to its high-value nutritional content. WADI grows Carob seedlings with its partners and eventually plants them in different sites in an effort to restore forests; once planted, they will improve soil quality, prevent erosion, and help in eventual groundwater recharge.

Name of the relevant program receiving USAID support (via Global Climate Change or other funds): N/A
Names of partner organizations involved in the program: Watershed and Development Initiative (WADI), Royal Botanic Garden (RBG)

Nearly every morning in the yard beside her small thatched mud house, Yorh Brown starts a low-burning fire. She blends ingredients over just the right heat, then pours the thick mixture into a wide, shallow cooling pan. As her creation hardens, she uses a handmade wire inlay to cut it into rectangles, each about the size of a deck of cards.

“People say I make really good soap,” Brown says.

As she loads fragrant, pale green bars into a metal bowl and heads for her village’s small market, she smiles and adds, “I think it’s true.”

On its face, Brown’s soap business, which she started in a remote community in Nimba County, may not seem like part of an international effort to save Liberia’s forests. Until you ask what Brown and her neighbors used to do to earn a living.

“We were cutting the trees all the time to grow rice,” Brown explains. “We were hunting. We were always in the forests. We burned them.”

At the market, her friends are selling cooking oil, spices and other items they bought in bulk in the nearest big town to resell here for a profit. Like Brown, they started their businesses after joining WORTH, a global Pact program that reduces poverty and empowers women through village banking and entrepreneurship.

In Liberia, Pact is implementing WORTH with funding from USAID as part of the FIFES project, or Forest Incomes for Environmental Sustainability, which is working to preserve the West African nation’s trees and biodiversity. Through WORTH, Liberian forest communities that once survived by hunting and clearing land instead are developing alternative livelihoods that don’t destroy forests.

Photo taken in Feb. 2017.