The Small Grants Programme Newsletter – Dec 2025

Melting Mountains: How Indigenous Communities in Nepal are Adapting to Climate Change and Glacier Loss

High in Nepal’s Nubri Valley, Himalayan peaks surround ancient monasteries and stone houses. Accessible only by foot, this remote region preserves unique biodiversity and traditions, while its harsh winters shape resilient communities that rely on Indigenous knowledge to survive. Yet climate change and globalization have driven many working-age men away, leaving women with the double burden of household tasks and income generation.

Gardens of Resistance: Rural Women Cultivating Change in the Brazilian Backcountry

In the Pajeú backcountry, in Brazil’s Northeast, stories of resistance are etched into the dry earth and collective memory. Historically plagued by highly unequal land distribution and patriarchal power structures, this region also faces environmental issues, with communities struggling to maintain productive conditions due to the concentration of wealth and a lack of resources and infrastructure for coping with the semi-arid climate in a sustainable way.

The Blue Voyage: How Seagrass Conservation is Driving Climate Action in the Turkish Riviera

Cradled by the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea, Türkiye’s Bodrum Peninsula is known for its unique blend of natural beauty and cultural heritage. From secluded coves backed by sun-drenched hills dotted with olive groves, to the remains of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the interlinkages between past and present, history and opportunity, are manifold.

Guardians of What Remains: Protecting Harpy Eagles and Reclaiming Indigenous Heritage

Franklin Olivo was following a trail along a river that weaves deep into the jungle of Tagarkunyal – an ancestral territory of the Guna Indigenous Peoples, at the heart of Panama’s Darién province – when he saw it: chulub tummad, the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja). With a two-metre wingspan and claws as big as those of a grizzly bear, it is the largest and most powerful eagle in the Americas.

In Rubber Boots and Truly Happy: Amina's Journey from Office Life to Eco-Stable in Kazakhstan

Six years ago, Amina Yessina left a successful career as a financial director in a prestigious company to pursue a childhood dream: to work with horses professionally and build her own stable. The first time Amina ever sat on a horse was in her distant childhood, and it lasted only for a few minutes. However, that was enough to spark a deep desire to one day have a horse of her own.

Greening the Mexican Desert: Communities Use Innovation and Tradition to Turn a Desert Into Forest

In the parched communities of the Mixteca region’s desert fringe, in Mexico, the wait for the rainy season feels interminable. The realization that rains are becoming scarcer and less reliable is particularly sobering at the end of spring, a critical time here: it is not only the hottest, but also the driest time of year, marking the end of the long dry season, as most rains come during the summer.

Shaping the Future: Reviving Traditional Farming in Burkina Faso

Minata Bassinga is like many women farmers in the rural commune of Soaw, Burkina Faso: she manages her own fields, so her successes can mean the difference between malnutrition and thriving families. Bassinga belongs to the Mossi ethnic group and lives in Kalwaka Village with her five children; she helps her husband cultivate the family’s field before working on her own plot.

Building Marine Resilience in Antigua & Barbuda through Local Action

Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation in the Eastern Caribbean known for its beautiful beaches, coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. These ecosystems are culturally significant, provide critical ecosystems services, and support economic activities such as tourism and fishing, yet they face mounting threats from climate change, pollution, and unsustainable development.

Our Children’s Heritage: Restoring Wetlands across Zimbabwe

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that brings together representatives of nearly 90 percent of United Nations member states every three years to discuss the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. In July 2025, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention happenned in Zimbabwe, a country that has designated seven wetlands as Ramsar Sites of International Importance.

In Harmony with Nature: How People and Nature Can Thrive Together

People and nature thriving together: this is the vision championed by the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative Programme, which provides small-scale finance directly to local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society through SGP. It focuses on socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes, a concept from Japan, where an SGP team travelled to learn more.

GEF SGP Annual Monitoring Report 2024-2025

This is the infographic version of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) Results Report 2024-2025. It presents GEF SGP’s results for the period 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, based on the information from 116 SGP Country Programmes. The report highlights examples of successful projects from around the world, and demonstrates how the active leadership of local communities, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples can contribute to the effective stewardship of the environment and sustainable development.

Mawuusa and Giant Anteater Storybook

This story book produced by the South Rupununi Conservation Society in Guyana focuses on the threatened Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), a large mammal known by the Indigenous Wapichan as tamanawaa. It is is part of a series aimed at educating the public about the unique wildlife of Guyana's Rupununi region, a unique mosaic of interlinked wetland, forest and savannah ecosystems that serve as a critical connection between the Guyana Shield and the Amazon Basin, two of the world’s most biodiverse, carbon-rich and intact forests.

NaPO (Kenya) - Equator Prize 2025 Winner

COMAR (Argentina) - Equator Prize 2025 Winner

Reviving Resilience in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul Basin

GEF SGP and UNDP Protecting Wetlands in Zimbabwe