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Residents of Freetown, Sierra Leone, show off tree planters

#FreetownTheTreeTown campaign: Using digital tools to encourage tree cultivation in cities

Freetown, located at the seaward tip of a heavily forested, mountainous peninsula, is the capital of Sierra Leone, dominating its urban, economic, and social landscape. Each year, more than 100,000 people in search of employment move to the city, and the urban fringes continue to push deeper into…
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Nigerian farmer on a rice cart being pulled by cattle

Why the GEF is investing in transforming food systems

You may be aware that food plays an important role in human health. Did you know it is also critical to the health of our planet? Food systems are major drivers of global forest and biodiversity loss, land and soil degradation, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Pressure is also…
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Ethiopian woman watching over sheep flock at sunset

Climate finance and the urgency for adaptation in the developing world

There is growing momentum in the international community to ramp up climate finance for mitigation and adaptation actions. Undoubtedly, a focus on climate change adaptation in the developing world must be a priority for the financing. At the same time, there is a rallying call for countries to…
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Carlos Manuel Rodriguez surfing

A surfer's view on a blue and green recovery

In a blog for IUCN's World Conservation Congress, GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez writes how surfing has given him a deeper understanding of oceans and marine life, and a passion for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change.
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Artisanal small gold miners at work in Kenya

Second phase of planetGOLD doubles countries addressing mercury in ASGM

Since 2019, the Global Environment Facility-funded planetGOLD program has supported countries in addressing mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Now, the program is set to expand, adding 15 additional countries: Bolivia, Ghana, Honduras, Madagascar, Nigeria, Republic of the…
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Palm oil worker harvesting palm oil in Malaysia

How rescheduling debt for climate and nature goals could unlock a sustainable recovery

“As the world continues to struggle with COVID-19, it is faced with urgent, intertwined crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution, and international debt.” In a joint op-ed for World Economic Forum, GEF CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary…
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Panoramic view of the Dniester river

Protecting and valuing water across borders yields many benefits

This year’s World Water Day is focused on valuing water and illustrating how water means different things to different people. Indeed, there is a constant running through the Global Environment Facility’s three decades of work in geographies around the world: water is fundamental to all of the…
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Collecting PCB from transformers for proper disposal

Managing chemicals for a cleaner, healthier planet

Since it was signed 20 years ago, the Stockholm Convention has helped countries throughout the world to carefully manage the use, storage, distribution, and disposal of a particularly dangerous group of hazardous chemicals, the persistent organic pollutants or POPs.  Living in the early 21st…
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Cabuyal beach in Costa Rica

To build back better, we need to rethink global subsidies

In an article for the Davos Agenda 2021, GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez says a renewed focus on easing pressures on nature through a green and blue recovery has breathed new life into upcoming negotiations on biodiversity loss, land degradation, ocean conservation, and climate…
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Woman carrying items through the Sahel Desert in Chad

Building corridors of growth through the Sahel and beyond

Temperatures in the Sahel are increasing 1.5 times faster than the global average, and around 80 percent of the farmland has lost some degree of its natural productivity. Together, these factors diminish the availability of land for food production or grazing, deplete water, and increase the…

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