News
Pulling for Forests in Vietnam
September 12, 2019
The wheels are spinning, but the vehicle is going nowhere. It’s rainy season in Vietnam, and dirt roads have become rivers of mud. It’s not uncommon for a vehicle to become mired in the muck. But in this case, the vehicle holds much-needed funds that won’t be delivered to community-based forest owners unless a team […]
SWP: Water Security Requires Inclusiveness
August 20, 2019
While all people need water in order to live and work, many do not have a say in decision-making about water. As laid out in six toolkits by the USAID-funded Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP), improving water security in a sustainable way requires the involvement and ownership of all people who influence or are affected by water […]
Modeling the Mara
August 19, 2019
The Mara River runs from Kenya to Tanzania, providing water for 14,000 square kilometers of farmland, tea plantations, villages, forests, rangelands, and the richly biodiverse Serengeti and Maasai Mara national reserves. This critical river – and everyone who depends on it – is at risk, due to climate change and population growth. Agriculture and urbanization strain […]
EPA announces more than $7.5 Million in water quality cooperative agreements through Gulf of Mexico Division
August 14, 2019
Gulfport, Miss. (August 14, 2019) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it anticipates awarding seven Gulf of Mexico Division cooperative agreements totaling more than $7.5 million to fund projects that improve water quality, habitat, and environmental education in the Gulf of Mexico watershed. Since 2018, approximately $9.5 million has been awarded to […]
Speaking Her Mind
July 23, 2019
When word filtered through To Dy’s village in 2009 that she planned to build a latrine in her aging house, her neighbors struggled to suppress their laughter. Like her, they had never used a latrine growing up. When people saved extra money, they used it to renovate or enlarge their homes. What was she thinking? […]
Mother, Farmer, Leader
July 23, 2019
For decades, Rom Sareun balanced a life split between work and family, farming rice with her husband and caring for her six children. When her husband unexpectedly died in 2002, she shouldered his responsibilities, harnessing their cow and tilling the fields behind a heavy plow. Her youngest son was only seven. The hard work of […]
Putting New Skills to Use for Her Community
July 23, 2019
A bright afternoon sun blankets the village of Chanlahorng as visitors approach a cluster of wood-frame houses surroundinga dirt courtyard. Wearing a black T-shirt and a yellow patterned skirt, Sin Phally sets out a tea pot, drinking glasses and bottles of water for her guests. Then Phally, a rice farmer and mother of two, begins […]
An Award-Winning Partnership in Ghana Strengthens Land Tenure and the Global Cocoa Supply
June 28, 2019
The vast majority of cocoa consumed in America comes from only two countries – Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. What happens there has an outsized influence on America’s chocolate supply. Yet in Ghana, the supply has been under threat like never before, as up to 40 percent of cocoa farms suffer from low productivity, with many […]
Engaging the Private Sector to Invest in Resilience
June 24, 2019
Over a quarter century since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed, we endure and brace for the intensifying impacts of rising global temperatures. While international climate negotiations crawl along, most people agree that we remain achingly far from the monumental changes needed to prepare for climate change. Beyond responding to […]
How much does forest restoration benefit climate?
May 29, 2019
The Paris Agreement was a historic turning point in climate negotiations. As a global commitment toward changing the development trajectories of countries around the world, it acknowledged the reality of climate change and the imperative to mitigate the rise of global temperatures by reducing national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Signatories agreed to a 2-degree Celsius […]