Today, when students file into the lunchroom at Mundika High School in western Kenya, they are greeted by a spread of nutritious local vegetables with exotic-sounding names, like spider plant. But that wasn’t always the case. Just a few years ago, that fare had largely disappeared from Kenyan plates, replaced by cheaper foreign-derived foods, like cabbage and maize meal.
Over the last 30 years, more and more tea, coffee, and cocoa farmers have embraced climate-smart and sustainable practices by adopting “certification standards” that help to maintain soil quality, increase productivity, and reduce costs. The standards also assure buyers of agricultural commodities that the products in their supply chains are environmentally sustainable.
Thanks to the support of the Global Environment Facility and UN Development Programme, the women of Río Jesús de Santiago de San Ramón formed an association, each one had a greenhouse installed in their property for the production of agrochemical-free vegetables, and received training with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the National Institute of Learning and the National University of Costa Rica.
Lake Bogoria in Kenya’s Rift Valley region is a soda lake – extremely salty and alkaline, unable to support fish. It has deep spiritual and cultural significance for the Endorois people, who have been its custodians for centuries. But it’s only in the last few years that they realized they are sitting on a potential gold mine.
Paraguay is a country of friends. A common saying among citizens of this unique land, located in the heart of South America. In the evergreen city of Asunción, we have found this to be true in all areas of UNDP’s work.
The International Development Association (IDA) and the Global Environment Facility have since 2016 provided funding to significantly reorganize Guinea’s fisheries sector. This allowed to curb illegal fishing, preserve the resources, share the benefits with communities, and transform the livelihoods of 50,000 people since 2015, mainly women. A newly constructed landing site and a smoking facility will enable to process, each year, 70 tons of fish under improved hygienic conditions.
Challenge
For World Cities Day on October 31, we follow the story of how the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with funding from the Global Environment Facility, is working with San Salvador city and its surrounding coffee farms to create a ‘natural’ defense against floods.
Sajjad Hussain, a farmer and social worker, lives in the remote Kanju Kohsal village in Gilgit-Baltistan, nestled within the Karakoram mountain range in Central Asia.
Like many other locals, Sajjad kept his household livestock in a communal stone-walled corral overnight.
In the middle of the night, he heard murmurings and yelps reminiscent of stray dogs, but upon waking and peering out his window, a snow leopard was spotted on the prowl.
In balance with nature
Madagascar farmer Edmond is working on a rosewood conservation project coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Its aim is to safeguard a group of trees that is the world’s most trafficked wild product by value and volume. From Guatemala to Madagascar to Thailand to Zambia, rosewoods have been targeted by timber traffickers who seek to profit especially from its growing demand in China and Viet Nam, principally for furniture.
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, set up after the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster in Ukraine, is the third-largest nature reserve in mainland Europe and has become an iconic experiment in rewilding. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is working with Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources to support that renaissance. A six-year project funded by the GEF has helped establish a national biosphere reserve around Chernobyl.
