Western Hemisphere

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At the USGS, we recognize that many of the most urgent problems in the Western Hemisphere are shared and inter-dependent challenges affecting the economies, environments, energy reserves, social groupings, cultures, and institutions of Latin American and Caribbean countries, and Canada. Within the broad range of scientific and technical expertise that the USGS provides in the geosciences, we seek to deliver products and services to assess conditions with significant impact on people and the planet. We believe that robust scientific information will help improve decisions and allow leaders through the region take steps to prevent and mitigate the harms on vulnerable communities and the environment.

The examples below illustrate a vibrant portfolio of recent or current activities in support of strategic country- or regional-initiatives in the Western Hemisphere. Collectively, these contributions underscore the diversity of geographies, conditions, and disciplines the USGS engages in to address local and regional priority concerns.

• SilvaCarbon — SilvaCarbon is a U.S. interagency technical cooperation program to enhance the capacity of tropical countries in the use of remote sensing products and the implementation of forest inventories to measure, monitor, and report on carbon in their forests and other lands. The SilvaCarbon Latin America and Caribbean Regional Program builds capacity for national-level forest carbon Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV), complementing other efforts in the region. SilvaCarbon began working with the Andean Amazon countries of Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru in 2011, and in 2014 expanded to include the Central American and Caribbean countries of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. In 2019, SilvaCarbon began collaborating with Paraguay, and in 2022 expanded to include Uruguay and Argentina.
• Gold mining in Guyana — At the government of Guyana’s request, USGS, the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, and the U.S. Department of State began a project in 2021 to help map and assess nationwide artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) – a challenge facing many nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The project, in cooperation with Guyana’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Geology and Mines Commission, Forestry Commission, and Guyana Environmental Protection Agency, includes satellite imagery and geospatial analysis, as well as field work to identify gold mining sites, associated deforestation, and mining impacts such as sedimentation and mercury contamination. 

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