Goals: Protection, Restoration, Management

USAID works with countries to protect, restore, and manage their forests to conserve biodiversity, protect watersheds and coastlines, enhance soils and carbon storage, and maintain the full spectrum of ecosystem services that support people’s health and livelihoods. USAID will improve the protection, restoration, and management of more than 2.5 million acres (one million hectares) of natural and planted forests over the next two years while helping partner countries to meet their natural resource management and emissions reduction goals.

Drive Science, Technology, and Innovation

USAID leverages U.S. engines of innovation – such as science agencies and universities – to drive new technologies and science that can reduce the costs and increase the efficiency and impact of forest protection, restoration and management activities, including by creating economies of scale.

• The joint USAID-NASA SERVIR program is working with five regional hubs covering 50 countries to conduct collaborative research projects to develop tools and methods for using remotely sensed data to manage land use. Current capacity-building activities include monitoring land use change and fire activity, estimating greenhouse gas emissions, and identifying the drivers of deforestation and areas with land restoration potential.
• USAID/Brazil’s TerraBio activity, supported in part by SERVIR-Amazonia, will use remote-sensing data paired with on- site measurements to identify land use and deforestation patterns and monitor the impact of private sector investments on forest conservation and restoration in the Amazon.
• USAID/India’s Forest-PLUS 2.0 will improve the management of targeted forest landscapes in three states in India to enhance ecosystem services and increase economic opportunities. The project will help district authorities apply new forest management tools, including the use of geospatial monitoring, for forest management in priority watersheds to gather data at the ecosystem level.

Advance International and Partner-Country Policies and Capacities

USAID supports the international community, national governments, civil society, and the private sector in their efforts to protect and expand forests through improved policies and services, which will lay the foundation for conservation and reforestation goals such as Trillion Trees to be successful.

• Through USAID’s interagency partnership with U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of State, the SilvaCarbon program works in 23 countries to improve national forest monitoring systems that provide critical data to inform forest planning, protection, reforestation and other management or policy decisions.
• USAID/Peru will support an integrated, multi-agency approach to strengthen the Government of Peru’s capacity to enforce laws, policies, and regulations that prevent, detect and sanction environmental crimes such as illegal logging in the Amazon, and will empower indigenous communities to increase patrolling to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
• USAID/Kenya will provide technical assistance for policy and legal reforms at the national and county levels, and explore innovative ecosystem restoration technologies to recover 100,000 hectares of key degraded watersheds including Mt Elgon, Mau Forest Complex, and Cherangany Hills.

Mobilize Finance

USAID leverages corporate commitments to reduce deforestation and leverage private-sector actors who see forests as an investment opportunity to generate market-compliant carbon offsets or transition farmers to more sustainable crops and production practices. Companies also partner with USAID to secure the stable sources of high quality sustainable crops and forest products.

• USAID estimates it will mobilize 200 million USD in public and private finance in FY 2021 for programs and investments that contribute to conservation activities and sustainable land management.
• USAID’s Green Invest Asia helps agriculture and forestry businesses in Southeast Asia improve the sustainability and environmental stewardship of their operations while expanding their business opportunities, by connecting them with like-minded investors and reducing barriers to investment.
• USAID/Brazil partnered with Mirova Natural Capital and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to design the Althelia Biodiversity Fund Brazil, which will mobilize $100 million in blended finance to support sustainable activities that protect, restore, or otherwise improve biodiversity and community livelihoods in the Brazilian Amazon. USAID used its Development Credit Authority to provide a 50 percent loan guarantee for the fund.
• USAID/Madagascar, McCormick Ltd, the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International, and local businesses are working directly with farmer cooperatives in northeast Madagascar to improve farmers’ incomes and meet consumer demand for sustainably produced vanilla by contributing seedlings, staff and equipment for nursery development and sustainability certification.
• USAID/Vietnam is helping the Government of Vietnam expand a program that mobilizes millions for forest and watershed protection through payments-for-forest-environmental-services (PFES) by local businesses and utilities that benefit from these services. Vietnam mobilized $128M USD in domestic resources for forest management in 2019.

Build Community and Citizen Actions on the Ground

In 2020, USAID activities will improve the livelihoods of 350,000 individuals as a result of sustainable landscapes activities by diversifying and increasing incomes, improving community infrastructure, and generating payments for carbon and other environmental services.

• USAID/Ethiopia’s Food for the Hungry humanitarian activities are supporting communities in planting 21 million trees and fodder seedlings this year alone, which helps rehabilitate local watersheds and improves livelihoods to increase resilience, food security, and sustainable natural resource management. This approach decreases the need for costly humanitarian assistance, as analysis of satellite data of an earlier project demonstrates, and also supports the Government of Ethiopia’s reforestation efforts, which aims to plant 5 billion tree seedlings in 2020.
• USAID/Philippines’ Fish Right activity is enhancing economic benefits and community resilience through improved management of fisheries and coastal habitats. The activity improves livelihoods and promotes gender equity by helping women’s associations obtain concession agreements for mangrove management, managing and restoring degraded mangrove areas and reducing carbon emissions.
• USAID/Malawi’s Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests Activity will provide training and equipment to communities and local governments near protected forests to support forest monitoring, landscape management, sustainable livelihoods, and improve advocacy on forestry issues.
• USAID/Colombia is working with communities, government, and the private sector to rehabilitate and reforest watersheds and landscapes degraded by illegal mining in Antioquia and Choco, and has restored over 17,000 ha of degraded lands and improved incomes of 1,050 local families since 2016.