What We Do
To conserve globally important biodiversity, USAID works to protect and conserve terrestrial and marine ecosystems, invests in priority places to support people and nature, and combats conservation crime. USAID also collaborates and engages with other sectors to improve natural resource governance, promote health and equality of local communities, and apply technology and learning to enhance development practice.
Policy and Framework
USAID Biodiversity Policy
USAID’s Biodiversity Policy builds on a long history of conserving biodiversity and reflects the critical role of natural systems in achieving development goals. The Biodiversity Policy has helped to create more strategic, focused, and results-oriented programming that applies scientific and evidence-based approaches.
Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework
Sound management of environmental and natural resources is integral to a country’s development, resilience, and self-reliance. The Environmental and Natural Resource Management Framework serves as an Agency-wide guiding document to ensure USAID investments in all sectors bring environmental considerations to the forefront.
Key Resources:
USAID has produced in-depth guidance and tools to support biodiversity programming throughout the program cycle.
Learn more about the Agency's work on these thematic pages
Wildlife
Healthy wildlife populations are intrinsically valuable and integral to global well-being and cultural heritage. According to a 2020 World Wildlife Fund report, more than 70 percent of wildlife has been lost in the past 50 years, with habitat loss and degradation accounting for almost half of this loss. USAID’s comprehensive approach to wildlife conservation and management includes efforts to combat illegal trade, reduce human–wildlife disease transmission, and foster wildlife-friendly enterprises.
Marine and Fisheries
Effective marine conservation maintains and enhances valuable ocean and coastal ecosystems and their natural capital, ensuring healthy fish and marine ecosystems for current and future populations. Each year, USAID invests more than $33 million in about 15 countries to promote sustainable fisheries and conserve marine biodiversity. The Agency’s work focuses on strengthening resource governance and management, combating illegal fishing, improving food security and resilience, and empowering women.
Forestry
More than a billion people worldwide rely on forests for some portion of their livelihoods. The trade in illegal timber is estimated at $51–$152 billion annually, simultaneously threatening the world’s forests and taking resources from local communities that rely on forests for food, health, and income. Forests provide a wealth of benefits: They protect biodiversity and water resources, sequester carbon, provide important wildlife habitat, improve health and nutrition, provide timber and other non-timber forest products that contribute to livelihoods, and shelter communities from weather and climate extremes. By improving forest management and protection, USAID supports communities and their well-being.
Cross-Sectoral Integration
Collaboration and engagement across sectors helps to achieve and sustain development and conservation outcomes. Biodiversity conservation is an essential component of human development and closely linked to ending extreme poverty, increasing food security, improving public health, and building resilience to crises. As part of the Biodiversity Policy, USAID prioritizes integrated programming approaches and building the evidence base for integration.
Adaptive Management
Adaptive management is an intentional approach to making decisions and adjustments in response to new information and changes in context. Adaptive management at USAID occurs throughout the design, implementation, and evaluation of USAID activities and is part of a systematic and iterative use of knowledge and learning. We support the development of tools and approaches to strengthen adaptive management in biodiversity programming (such as the use of the Conservation Standards) to consistently test our assumptions and support a culture of intentional organizational learning for stronger biodiversity conservation results.
