Sadiki Lotha Laiser

Sadiki Lotha Laiser has 17 years of experience in environmental, natural resources management, livelihoods & wellbeing, policy planning, and governance. He has led departments, units, consultants, and experienced teams that delivered science-policy and decision-making interfaces across socio-economic, environmental, political, and cultural areas in the African region. Sadiki currently leads the USAID Heshimu Bahari Project in…

News: Chemonics Setting Science-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets

Chemonics is committed to confronting the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its global operations. Today, Chemonics announces that it has joined the Business Ambition for 1.5°C Campaign and has committed to setting emissions reduction targets in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Chemonics joins the world’s largest and fastest-growing…

Nik Steinberg

Nik Steinberg is a climate risk and adaptation specialist with over a decade of experience in applied climate research. As part of the Climate Group at Chemonics, he delivers actionable, user-centric climate information while designing analytical approaches to help address decision-making challenges in the face of uncertainty. Prior to joining Chemonics, he served as the…

Building Resilience into a River Basin

Along the Limpopo River, USAID is tackling severe water and sanitation challenges in targeted municipalities and protected areas from the river’s source in South Africa to its mouth at the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. This success story highlights how the Resilient Waters Program’s support to local municipalities living around the river to…

Balancing Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainability in Indonesia

One-third of Indonesia’s 75,000 villages, home to 32 million people, lie within or adjacent to land dedicated by the government for forestry or conservation. All Indonesian citizens depend on healthy ecosystems for goods and services, including water, soil, forest products, and others that underpin sustainable development. However, weak governance, a lack of private sector commitment,…

Luis Fernando Jara

Luis Fernando Jara is a forestry and climate change expert with 40 years of experience in project design and management, capacity building, and development of the forestry sector across the climatically diverse regions within Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Perú, Ecuador, and other parts of Latin America. He has extensive leadership experience in technical and managerial…

From Threat to Solution: Rethinking the Role of Communities in Nature Conservation

This post originally appeared on Mongabay. Photo courtesy of Samantha Cheng. The imperative for nature conservation has never been greater. A widely publicized intergovernmental report predicts extinction for more than a million species over the next few decades unless we drastically change human consumption and economic growth. This loss of species will threaten the global…

Development Works Here with Brian App

We’d like you to meet Brian App! Brian is a natural resource management specialist with nearly 20 years of experience working in the environmental sector. From flipping through the pages of National Geographic to building more water-secure communities in Africa, he shares some of the highlights of his development journey. Brian is one reason #DevelopmentWorksHere.…

Development Works Here with Alejandro Arrivillaga

We’d like you to meet Alejandro “Alex” Arrivillaga! Alex is a biologist and the deputy chief of party for the USAID Guatemala Biodiversity Project. He shares some of the insight he’s gained over the course of his 25-year career working with communities to develop shared solutions for biodiversity conservation. Alex is one reason #DevelopmentWorksHere. 1.…

Alejandro Arrivillaga

Alejandro Arrivillaga is a biologist with more than 25 years of experience with complex, multi-country biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management projects, in government and non-governmental settings. Alejandro has a proven scientific record and experience with strategic planning and all aspects of resource assessment and monitoring. His work has required teamwork development, leadership and networking,…