Environment and Energy
VEGA promotes sustainable use and management of natural resources to support the food and income needs of growing populations and the health of the planet. These activities encompass a broad range of programs and services including:
- Clean Energy
- Ecosystem Services (including REDD+)
- Forestry & Natural Resource Management
- Climate Change Adaptation
Program Highlights
Winrock International: In Bangladesh, some 40 million tons of firewood are consumed annually as cooking fuel, contributing to deforestation, erosion, and flooding. Only 3 percent of the population has access to pipeline supplied gas, creating heavy dependence on wood, animal wastes, and other biomass energy resources. Women and children bear the burden of collecting fuel and suffer from a variety of respiratory diseases caused by indoor smoke from cooking. Cooking times have dropped by as much as 80 percent, and household fuel costs and health hazards have been reduced thanks to biogas technology and a pilot project in Bangladesh. Under the auspices of the USAID-funded South Asia Regional Initiative/ Energy Program, Grameen Shakti, a nonprofit renewable energy organization, and Winrock's Nepal Biogas Support Program have demonstrated the use of biogas as an efficient and renewable source of energy for the poor in Bangladesh. Read more…
Winrock International: Farmers participating in the USAID-funded Water User Association (WUA) Support Project in Tajikistan increased their profitability by an estimated $1 mil-lion on 6,310 hectares of farmland under irrigation, according to a 2006 assessment survey comparing data from 2005 and 2006 harvests. Members of 15 WUAs contributed labor and materials to match project investments in irrigation system rehabilitation and water management training. Read more…
ACDI/VOCA: ACDI/VOCA received a four-year, $14 million associate award to implement the Marketing and Agriculture for Jamaican Improved Competitiveness (MAJIC) project. The goal of the USAID-funded program is to transform Jamaica’s agriculture sector into a market-driven, competitive industry, with increased volume and value of Jamaican agricultural commodities leading to improved farm income, strengthened food security and expanded small-scale rural enterprises. Volunteer experts recruited by ACDI/VOCA will assist in achieving these objectives. The project focuses on four components:
- Supporting an effective and efficient marketing information system
- Strengthening production, processing and marketing linkages throughout selected value chains
- Strengthening financial services for production, productivity and marketing
- Improving production and marketing of selected specialty crops, mainly cocoa
NCBA-CLUSA: The Wula Nafaa project, which means “Benefits from the Forest” in Wolof, has created businesses around several tree based value chains including honey, palm oil, baobab, karaya gum, cashew, and charcoal. This USAID-funded project in Senegal was initiated with the ultimate goal of improving household incomes. With the increase in wealth, participants realize the incentives inherent in the sound management of natural resources. The program is composed of two major components concerned with:
- The development of sustainable small and medium-sized enterprises
- The empowerment of local producer groups and rural communities, the clarification of their rights and responsibilities, and the strengthening of their role in decentralized NRM
- USAID Climate Change & Development Strategy 2012
- USAID Natural Resource Management & Development Portal
- American Carbon Registry – established by Winrock International
