ecosystems

Report

Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure

A new generation of infrastructure projects that harness the power of nature can help achieve development goals, including water security and climate resilience. In this report from the World Bank and World Resources Institute, both organizations are calling for green infrastructure, such as mangroves and wetlands, to play a bigger role in traditional infrastructure planning. Integrating nature into mainstream infrastructure systems can produce lower cost and more resilient services.

Report

What Does Climate Change Mean for the Limpopo Basin?

The objective of the Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) of USAID Southern Africa is to enhance the resilience of people and ecosystems in the Limpopo Basin Program (LRB) by strengthening the capacity of the Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), and its key stakeholders, to address issues of climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation within the context of trans-boundary integrated water resources management (IWRM).

Article

Collaboration for Watershed Conservation in Nepal

In western Nepal, pollution, fishing with electric current, explosive devices, and other destructive practices threaten the biodiversity of the country's great rivers and the generations-old cultural traditions of fishing communities. But the tide is turning in some of these communities, where those who once contributed to the problem are increasingly becoming part of the solution.

Article

Tanzania Balances Competing Demands for Scarce Water Resources

The Tanzanian community of Loibor Siret is a village of approximately 5,000 people (predominantly ethnic Maasai) and 15,000 head of livestock --- a number that rises and falls with the seasons. Here, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) works alongside Tanzania People & Wildlife (TPW) and community representatives to improve water management in this semi-arid landscape.

Field Guide

Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide

World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in partnership with the US Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), developed this guide (the "Flood Green Guide") to support communities at a local level in using natural and nature-based methods for flood risk management. An interdisciplinary global team developed the Flood Green Guide with a specific focus on advancing the development and application of natural and nature-based methods for managing flood risk.

Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet: PREPARED Program (East Africa)

The livelihoods of East Africans largely depend on access to and protection of their natural resources, including wildlife. When those resources are threatened, poverty grows. Rising temperatures, fluctuating rainy seasons and extreme weather events affect many in the region, especially those engaged in agriculture, fishing and pastoralism. These factors diminish incomes and impair access to food, health care, electricity, safe drinking water and sanitation services – undermining and potentially reversing development progress.

Report

The Convergence Factor: Lessons from Integrating Freshwater Conservation and WASH

Most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is under pressure from increasing population growth, urbanization, and consumption, as well as poorly-planned infrastructure development. All these factors are negatively impacting the quality and availability of freshwater resources. By linking freshwater conservation and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group (ABCG) partners expect that reduced watershed degradation and pollution will help increase the health of watershed ecosystems and species. 

Water Currents

Water Currents: World Toilet Day 2018

Water Currents is produced biweekly by USAID’s E3 Water Office. Each issue contains recent news and articles on water sector issues, partner and donor updates, latest sector research, and a special focus on one topic. Please provide your feedback and suggestions by contacting the waterteam@usaid.gov.

Webinar

Watershed Moments in the Mara

New Beginnings in Transboundary Water Cooperation

Winding for nearly 14,000 kilometers, the Mara River is a vital source of life in Kenya and Tanzania. The river traverses the towering Mau Forest, wanders through tea plantations and growing settlements in the upper Basin, and waters the rangelands of Maasai pastoral communities. The river also sustains the region’s stunning biodiversity, from forest ecosystems to the wildebeests migrating between Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve.