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As 2025 gets underway, efforts by cities to reduce congestion, address air pollution, improve housing access, and lower flooding risks are getting more attention than ever. These initiatives matter to more than 4 billion people who live in urban centers worldwide, and also have enormous consequences for the planet and global environmental goals. 

In 2014 the Global Environment Facility launched an ambitious effort to influence a shift in supply chains for beef, soy, and palm oil towards reduced-deforestation production, while delivering continued social and economic development to farmers and their communities.

This publication from the GEF Small Grants Programme summarizes the experiences and lessons learned from six participating community-based REDD+ (CBR+) countries during the pilot phase (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Panama, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia). A case study from each country represents a notable strategy for implementing REDD+ at the local level. These case studies, featuring action from the ground up, have demonstrated the importance of investing in Indigenous Peoples, young people, women, and other marginalized groups affected by climate change.

Over the past five years, the Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) has helped more than 80 countries improve their ability to monitor and share their progress toward international climate goals. The improved reporting and transparency resulting from CBIT support has had a truly game-changing impact – not only for tracking progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also by supporting informed climate policy-making in countries around the world.

“Asuncion Green City of the Americas – Pathways to Sustainability” is one of the GEF investments aiming to support Asuncion’s ambition to become a green and sustainable city. Through an integrated approach, the project seeks to advance integrated land use planning of the Metropolitan Area of Asuncion (AMA), reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation and waste, reduce unintentionally produced persistent organic pollutants, and improve protected area management in the AMA.

Under the seventh GEF replenishment, GEF-7, Impact Programs (IPs) on Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR); Sustainable Forest Management (SFM); and Sustainable Cities are being developed to address the drivers of environmental degradation, and to support transformational change in these key systems.