Deadline: 21 May 2020
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is soliciting proposals from highly qualified organizations or teams to update the ecosystem profile for the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot.
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.
Covering an area three times the size of Spain, the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot extends from western Venezuela to northern Chile and Argentina, and includes large portions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
Conservation Outcomes and Key Biodiversity Areas
- All CEPF ecosystem profiles are built around the concept of conservation outcomes. Conservation outcomes are the entire set of conservation targets in a hotspot that need to be achieved in order to prevent species extinctions and biodiversity loss at a global scale. The CEPF investment strategy will be based upon these outcomes, firstly to ensure that CEPF investments are directed at priorities for the conservation of global biodiversity, and secondly to enable measurement of the success of conservation investments.
- Conservation outcomes exist at three scales representing:
- Globally threatened species;
- The sites that are important for their conservation (i.e., KBAs); and
- The landscapes necessary to maintain the ecological and evolutionary processes upon which those sites and species depend. CEPF’s investment strategy will address a subset of these conservation outcomes based on the prioritization criteria.
- The current profile identifies 442 KBAs covering 33.2 million hectares and 814 globally threatened species. The updated profile will incorporate the following revisions:
- Updated list of globally threatened species based upon the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
- New data on the status and distribution of globally threatened and endemic species generated through research over the last seven years.
- Recently identified KBAs for taxonomic groups not included in the current profile, including amphibians, freshwater fishes, plants and reptiles. The ecosystem profiling team will not be required to identify new KBAs but only to incorporate those identified under other initiatives over the last seven years. All KBAs should meet the global standard for the identification of KBAs (IUCN 2016).
Scope of the Profile
The scope of the updated ecosystem profile will cover the entire biodiversity hotspot. However, the team is anticipated to cover Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in greater detail than Argentina, Chile and Venezuela. CEPF expects the following considerations to guide the profiling process:
- The team will conduct in-country consultations with stakeholders in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. (These consultations may be held virtually, depending on the prevailing COVID-19-related restrictions at the time.)
- Consultations for Argentina, Chile and Venezuela may be conducted through remote communications, as required.
- A regional consultation will be conducted to review and validate the investment strategy in a country recommended by the profiling team. (This consultation may be held virtually, depending on the prevailing COVID-19-related restrictions at the time.)
- The team will build on the results of a process currently under way in Ecuador led by Fundación EcoCiencia. This process includes the updating of the KBA list for Ecuador with the inclusion of new KBAs for reptiles and plants; stakeholder consultations to recommend updates to the CEPF investment strategy; and identification of priority species for CEPF investment. CEPF will make all relevant data available to the profiling team to allow for their inclusion into the hotspot-wide ecosystem profile.
Funding Information
The total budget for this grant is not to exceed US $250,000.
Time Frame
The duration of the profiling process is anticipated to be from 1 July 2020 through 31 March 2021, although it might begin later, depending on the length of the review and contracting process.
Eligibility Criteria
- CEPF will accept proposals from any qualified organization anywhere in the world, including non-government organizations, private consulting groups, and both public and private universities.
- Government-owned enterprises or institutions are eligible only if they can establish that the enterprise or institution (i) has a legal personality independent of any government agency or actor; (ii) has the authority to apply for and receive private funds; and (iii) is not able to assert a claim of sovereign immunity.
- Organizations may choose to form a team, or consortium, for the purposes of submitting a proposal. If a consortium is submitting a proposal in response to this CFP, then one organization must be clearly identified as the lead.
- The lead organization will have final responsibility for submitting the consolidated proposal and, if successful, will be responsible for leading implementation, reporting to CEPF, receiving and disbursing funds, and coordinating the other members of the consortium.
For more information, visit https://www.cepf.net/grants/open-calls-for-proposals/2020-tropical-andes-ecosystem-profile-update
