Climatelinks Photo Gallery

Members of Malatgao United Riverside Farmers Association in Quezon municipality, Palawan province received their high-quality durian seedlings from the USAID-funded Protect Wildlife project in the Philippines. They are among the 600 local and indigenous farmers who were trained and engaged by USAID Protect Wildlife in 2019 to plant 44,000 durian seedlings in approximately 400 hectares of forestland in southern Palawan. This agroforestry and conservation agriculture initiative is a way for USAID to provide incentives to farmers who agree to plant high-value fruit trees in forestlands and buffer zones classified as production areas. When successful, this can contribute to increased tree cover in their area, enhanced climate resiliency through healthier forests, and improved conservation of local biodiversity.

In 2019, Equal Exchange's local cooperative partners participated in a peer exchange in Peru to learn about organic fertilizer production as part of USAID's Cooperative Development Program. By choosing to produce organic fertilizer, the cooperatives plan to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Through USAID's Cooperative Development Program (CDP) which sits in the E3 Office of Local Sustainability*, Equal Exchange works to build the capacity of the small-scale farmers they source from across Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru by working to reduce barriers throughout the supply chain. Limited access to capital, lack of cooperative governance, unstable market prices, climate change and gender inequity, are some of the challenges these farmers plan to overcome with CDP support. Equal Exchange is a U.S. worker-owned company headquartered in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Equal Exchange sells a number of organic, fair trade products to specialty markets across North America and Europe. * Once the Bureau for Democracy, Development and Innovation (DDI) is established, the CDP will sit in the Local, Faith and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub. ---- Location and date the photo was taken: Peru, 2019 Who is depicted in the photo: Cooperative members from Guatemala, Peru, Paraguay What activity is depicted in the photo: A cooperative-to-cooperative exchange to learn about producing organic fertilizer. How the activity addresses climate change: Organic fertilizer emits less greenhouses gases than synthetic options. Name of the relevant program receiving USAID support (via Global Climate Change or other funds): Cooperative Development Program Names of partner organizations involved in the program: For this story, Equal Exchange. Other implementing partners include Land O'Lakes Venture37, NCBA CLUSA, Genex, Frontier Co-op, World Council of Credit Unions, NRECA International, Global Communities, HealthPartners, and the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC).

Kamala Magar is a poor farmer from Saripakha, Kaski District who depends on her small farm and community forest. Kalasha belongs to the Saripakha Multiple Use Water System (MUS) developed by the iDE with support from Montview Church, Denver USA. The Saripakha MUS provides piped water to 20 disadvantaged families for domestic use and vegetable production from a spring source located in the village’s community forest. The approach embeds environmental services with water fees paying a MUS manager to maintain the system and protect the community forest water source. The community has installed a fence and planted additional trees to protect the water source. Kamala is from a disadvantaged ethnic group, she produced vegetables using MUS water improving family nutrition, earning over $300/year, and collects fodder and wood from the community forest. The MUS also saves hours every day for primarily women and girls from carrying water. iDE with support from USAID, DFID, the EU, and others has developed 500 MUS serving 80,000 people; MUS enable farmers to cope with climate change by shifting from risky rainfed agriculture to piped irrigation. Photo by iDE Volunteer, Bimala Rai Colavito.

This picture depicts the start of agroforestry efforts in the village co-op in Mwambezi, Zambia (near Mbala). As part of the Feed the Future Initiative, the co-op ordered 100 lemon tree seedlings and a batch of 100 moringa tree seedlings. After growing to a sufficient size, the seedlings were planted around the village of Mwambezi.

Nelia is faced with new challenges in Mozambique, including the cycle of frequent droughts and drenching rains. Through her involvement with the Resilient Agricultural Markets Activity project in the Beira Corridor of Mozambique, she is learning how to increase productivity, profitability and resilience of her farm through the adoption of conservation agricultural practices, like low/no tillage, soil coverage and crop diversification. Key to the success of this work is training of model family farmers - like Nelia - who demonstrate the benefits of conservation agriculture in their own fields.

Many farmers in coastal Sierra Leone cultivate rice as their staple food. In doing that, they clear land including mangrove forests to make way for their rice farms. Unfortunately, this has a counterproductive effect as the water during high tides overwhelms the rice farms and destroys these crops. WA BiCC introduced this new approach called "rice-mangrove integration" where mangrove plants are replanted around the rice farms to protect the rice crops from overwhelming amounts of water. These mangrove forests also serve as spawning grounds for fish, oysters, and other aquatic species, increasing food security in these communities, including Bonthe in coastal Sierra Leone.

Limón Province, Costa Rica, November 2014. Pineapples are by definition unsustainable, requiring high use of agrochemicals and replacing large swaths of land with a single, spiny crop. However, pineapples are also extremely popular, so in spite of their inherent unsustainability, they’re not going anywhere. To meet increasing global demand for sustainably produced crops, companies in Costa Rica are investing in improved agricultural practices, certifications, and better conditions for laborers.

Chirripo Volcano, Costa Rica, 2014. Agroforestry is gaining popularity worldwide as a method of sustainable land management. At AsoProLa, an agricultural cooperative high in the mountains of Costa Rica's Puntarenas province, coffee is grown in the shade of banana trees. Coffee grown in this manner requires less agrochemicals, provides habitat to animals, and tastes better than non-shade grown varieties.

Within the framework of the “Alliance for Sustainable Landscapes and Markets”, financed by USAID and implemented by Rainforest Alliance in Mexico, we strengthen resilient, sustainable farm, and forestland management of coffee producers in Chiapas. One of the main goals with our partner Olam is to reforest 4,000 hectares around coffee farms in Chiapas in order to preserve the region’s natural resources and strengthen the forest management of coffee producers. Women from the collective “Oro Verde”, who are working with Olam, are implementing sustainable practices in reforestation and landscape restoration like soil conservation, waste management, plant nurseries management, and tree planting. The inclusion of women in community-led actions for reforestation and landscape restoration is essential to accomplish more and better results in sustainable forestry management and climate smart agriculture. Photo taken in Sinai, Chiapas, 2019.

A man harvests water lilies from a Community Fish Refuge in Pursat, Cambodia. The Feed the Future Cambodia Rice Field Fisheries II is supporting 140 communities in rural Cambodia to improve and manage local Community Fish Refuges to provide improved habitat and protection for valuable wild fish populations, and to provide water for many other uses, particularly in seasonal and unseasonable dry periods. Well-managed fish refuges led to a 71% increase in fish catch by the poorest households, strengthening food and nutrition security. Photo credit:

Two agricultural extensionists from the Mam Mayan population of Todos Santos undergoing a field training day for improved post harvest practices. Todos Santos Cuchumatán is a municipality from Huehuetenango, at 12,559ft elevation, a drought or extreme rainfall have serious effects on smallholder farmers crops, therefore the PHLIL helps this farmers improve their resilience to climate change by improving post-harvest practices, reducing contamination of their corn and increasing their yields, ensuring food safety in adverse conditions. Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. October 25, 2017.

Feed the Future Post Harvest Loss Innovation Lab Guatemala, Asociación Share de Guatemala.

Fradian Murray, a research assistant, assesses a cassava trial plot in Saint Thomas, Jamaica. Through the USAID-funded Jamaica Rural Economy and Ecosystems Adapting to Climate Change project, Fradian is helping smallholder farmers, including women, sell their cassava crop to the Jamaican beer company Red Stripe and secure better livelihoods and futures in the face of mounting climate risks.

Costa Rica, November 2014. The fertile fields of Costa Rica as seen from the slopes of Irazú volcano. Costa Rica's government acknowledges the importance of environmental sustainability, and has created many programs to incentivize good practices by the agriculture and infrastructure sectors, among others. 

AOM Mango Processing Plant - Mali/ Value Chains

Nagele Boru cuts grass from a community enclosure to feed her calves. She and her husband worked on the enclosure as part of the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), a large-scale, Government of Ethiopia-implemented, multi-donor-funded program that aims to help people escape food insecurity in Ethiopia. Funding more than 20 percent of PSNP’s budget between 2010 and 2014, USAID was the program’s largest bilateral donor. This program helped to cushion vulnerable groups from shocks and increase their resilience by providing predictable and timely food transfers while they work to build community assets and enhance their livelihoods. Nationwide, the PSNP reached 6.4 million people, 1.5 million of them through USAID support. In pastoral areas, USAID’s PSNP programs supported 162,728 people in the Somali Region and the Borena Zone of the Oromia Region. Working with the Ethiopian Government, other donors and implementing partners, USAID is also helping design the next generation of PSNP programs through developing more sustainable approaches to protecting and building household and community assets for people in pastoral areas. PSNP public works reduce communities’ risks and improve resilience through a wide range of activities, including fodder production, infrastructure construction, soil, and water.

Livestock on the way to market. A man looks after cattle near Mekele, Tigray, Ethiopia.