Environment

Our planet’s natural resources are under threat: From a changing climate, ever-growing demand, and overuse. The data tell us that time is running out to make meaningful changes to the way humans interact with the planet. But science is also showing us there are effective solutions we can use today.

RTI integrates scientific expertise from diverse disciplines into technical approaches that protect biodiversity, combat wildlife crime, foster good environmental governance, ensure critical conservation, and take bold steps to address climate change and build resilience. 

Our Approach

At RTI, we recognize that human actions can have catastrophic effects on the natural world, as well as our own health, security, and wellbeing. We utilize approaches such as Planetary Health to develop nature based solutions that protect natural resources, address climate change and environmental justice, and promote long-term economic well-being.  

RTI’s environmental work includes protecting critical biodiversity, improving conservation practices of key landscapes and seascapes, combating wildlife crime, fostering good environmental governance, strengthening the resilience of communities, reducing land-based greenhouse gas emissions, as well as ensuring effective stakeholder and private sector engagement. Our approach to good governance accounts for the economic, natural, and socio-political-institutional dimensions of complex problems and is backed by cutting-edge governance tools and frameworks, including Applied Political Economy Analyses and USAID’s Nature, Wealth, and Power Framework.

We partner with government agencies, private sector partners, civil society, and academic institutions to design practical, actionable, and effective strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and facilitate climate adaptation. Through these partnerships, we help mainstream climate change considerations into public policy, create baselines that help understand the primary sources of GHG emissions as well as the opportunities to curb them, and channel investment toward landscape conservation and more sustainable practices in agriculture, forestry, and industry.  

As a nonprofit research institute that invests in self-funded research and development, we leverage scientific expertise from a range of disciplines within RTI and integrate this into our technical approaches for more effective and sustainable project results. As part of our commitment to improving the human condition, we invest strongly in local staff and partners, prioritize local ownership, and bring an inclusive, wide network of stakeholders to the table.