GCC Brief: Sustainable Landscapes

This brief explains USAID’s Sustainable Landscapes programs, which are aimed at reducing emissions from tropical deforestation and supporting local livelihoods, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services. USAID is helping conserve tropical forests by helping countries engage in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). USAID draws on decades of in-house experience in forestry and natural resource management and the expertise of the U.S. Forest Service and space agency NASA. It gives special priority to projects and programs with the potential to show that REDD+ can achieve cost-effective and sustainable net emissions reductions on the ground, while also generating economic benefits. Some REDD+ programs that USAID supports fall under its partnerships with more than 20 developing countries - such as Colombia and Mexico - to develop and implement Low Emission Development Strategies. Another key partner is Indonesia, where USAID is working to bring 3 million hectares of tropical forest and peatland under improved management while providing 12,000 forest dependent beneficiaries with new opportunities and increased economic benefits. In 2013, USAID expanded its sustainable landscapes work to include non-forest landscapes, in line with global discussions about possibly incorporating landscapes such as peatlands, wetlands, and agricultural lands.