Projects
Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL)
Climate change and a growing population are putting increasing levels of stress on Bangladesh’s forests, wetlands and other ecosystems. The USAID-funded Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods program is helping to disseminate management methods that help communities better collaborate with local and national governments to balance biodiversity protection with sustainable economic development.
Vietnam Forests and Deltas (VFD)
The USAID Vietnam Forests and Deltas Program supports Vietnam’s transition to resilient, sustainable development. The first phase of the program (2012-2018) helped put national policies and strategies into practice to respond to environmental change, with a focus on the forestry and agriculture sectors, disaster risk reduction, and strengthening livelihoods. Beginning in 2018, the program’s second […]
Milwaukee River Pay-for-Performance Project
Farms are businesses, which means they respond to economic signals. That basic idea is behind this program’s approach to reduce the damage to water quality caused by agricultural run-off in the West Branch Milwaukee River watershed. Winrock works with water treatment plant owners, conservation groups and others in the area to devise pay-for-performance incentives that […]
Improving Chesapeake Bay Water Quality
Healthy and well-managed coastal areas provide local populations with everything from tasty seafood to protection from damaging storm surges. As part of the National Science Foundation’s Coastal SEES (Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability) program, this project analyzes and measures how utilizing best land management practices impacts the water quality in three watersheds in Maryland’s […]
Indonesia Carbon Monitoring System
A lot of field work is necessary to truly understand the role of forests in climate change — both the benefits of preserving them and the impact of cutting them down. As part of a NASA-funded initiative, Winrock is spearheading the planning, collection and analysis of data to understand the impacts of selective logging on…
Ontario Pay-for-Performance
Years of agricultural run-off have deposited large amounts of phosphorous-laden fertilizer into Ontario, Canada’s Lake Simcoe. Though fertilizer can help boost crop production, its presence in rivers and lakes harms water quality. This program aids the Ontario government’s efforts to improve Lake Simcoe’s health by creating and developing incentives that encourage farmers to reduce the…
Conflict and Cooperation over REDD
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an effective approach to address climate change. But questions over how forests should be managed to balance economic and environmental priorities can lead to conflict. This program investigates instances of conflict in Mexico, Vietnam and Nepal with the aim of developing tools and approaches that can […]
Wetlands Carbon Sequestration Protocol
Healthy wetlands have the potential to store large amounts of carbon. Winrock’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) is developing a methodology that will encourage wetlands restoration in California by allowing those who undertake conservation projects to generate offsets that can be sold on the state’s carbon market.
Green Assets – Middleton ARB Transition
Ensuring that large tracts of forest remain undeveloped is a powerful tool to address climate change. Resisting unavoidable development pressure is made easier when conservation makes economic sense. Winrock provided technical assistance that helped the development company Green Assets Inc. qualify for California Air Resources Board Offset Credits and protect nearly 4,000 acres of South […]