Note: Earth Day, April 22, 2011, coincides with the United
Nations Year of Forests. USAID proudly celebrates more than 30
years of supporting projects to promote forest conservation in
ways that reduce poverty, combat climate change, and recognize
the economic, cultural, and ecological benefits for sustainable
development. Near Ecuador’s border with Colombia, a young boy in
a Cofán Indigenous community shares his front yard with drying
cocoa beans. His parents have put into practice improved cocoa
production techniques such as the grafting of higher yield cocoa
varieties onto hardy local stock. As a result, they receive
increased yields and incomes, all the while reducing pressure to
convert neighboring forests to agricultural lands. Such efforts
to support sustainable livelihoods are but one of many tools in
the conservation strategy of USAID’s Initiative for Conservation
in the Andean Amazon. From the massive forests of the Congo and
Amazon River basins to one of the world’s smallest remnant cloud
forests i