AF climate projects continue amid COVID-19
FROM HONDURAS to Uzbekistan, the Adaptation Fund is helping countries build resilience to environmental, health and economic challenges, even as COVID-19 remains a public health challenge.
“In Honduras, an Adaptation Fund (AF) project, funded by AF and carried out by UNDP and the Honduras government, is building the resilience of natural ecosystems through reforestation and water resource management, as well as providing technical and administrative training to local municipalities,” the AF said in an article it co-wrote and initially published on Climate Home News.
“Further, to address challenges with COVID-19, an indigenous group that lives in the Central Forest Corridor decided with community leaders to go out in family brigades - household by household - in small groups to plant thousands of trees to restore ecosystem resources, while limiting risk of disease spread,” it added.
In Karakalpakstan, another AF project implemented by UNDP has helped communities stay resilient during the pandemic by giving over 1,000 families in the region the resources to build their own self-sustaining greenhouses.
In Costa Rica, an AF Direct Access project implemented by Fundecooperación para el Desarrollo Sostenible, which promotes food security by empowering farmers to diversify production has, since the pandemic, put an emphasis on local production to support the local supply chain at a time when transport has been limited.
“We are facing one of the largest challenges in generations with the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted Adaptation Fund manager Mikko Ollikainen.
“We see Adaptation Fund projects adapting directly to help with the crisis, and inherent adaptation measures in projects helping vulnerable communities build resilience to climate change, as well as broader resilience to environmental, health and economic challenges,”” he added.