Deadline: 10-Aug-2020
The New England Biolabs Foundation is accepting Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) from community-based nonprofit organizations.
The New England Biolabs Foundation is a private foundation whose mission is to foster community-based conservation of landscapes and seascapes and the biocultural diversity found in these places.
The Foundation supports grassroots organizations and other NGOs in selected countries of Central America, Andean South America, and West Africa. In addition, in support of their local roots, they also provide grants for community-based conservation and cultural projects in coastal communities on the North Shore of Massachusetts.
Thematic Areas
The Foundation supports communities in the stewardship of their landscapes and seascapes and the associated bio-cultural diversity, ecosystem services, and food-ways. They welcome inquiries from community-based nonprofit organizations working toward:
- Conserving biological diversity (terrestrial and marine).
- Sustaining cultural diversity (linguistic diversity, as well as traditional knowledge systems and practices).
- Maintaining ecosystem services (water, soil, and carbon sequestration).
- Supporting food sovereignty and economic vitality of local communities.
- In the marine environment, sustaining healthy reefs and fisheries.
In addition, in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts, they support projects in the area of artistic expression, with an emphasis on those focusing on the environment and social change.
Funding Information
- The maximum international grant size is now $12,000, with past grants ranging from $3,000 to $9,000. The maximum size for local grants is now $8,000, with past grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000.
Geographic Focus
The Foundation is actively funding projects in the following regions and target landscapes:
- Central America
- Andean South America
- Sacred Valley of the Incas, extending from Ollantaytambo to Pisac in the Southern Andes of Peru.
- In Bolivia, that portion of the Altiplano extending from Lake Titicaca to Lake Poopó, and beyond to Sucre.
- Andes-Amazon Basin of Ecuador and Peru (with specific landscapes within that region to be identified in 2019).
- West Africa
- U.S. Grants
- While the foundation’s emphasis is on working internationally, they do fund a limited number of local projects in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts.
Approaches
The Foundation support community-based projects that seek to meet their objectives in a variety of ways. Among the kinds of approaches we support are those concerned with:
- Creating and/or ensuring effective management and governance of protected areas, including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), in particular where governance is led by communities (e.g., Indigenous Peoples’ and Community-Conserved Areas and Territories [ICCAs]).
- Ecological restoration involving native species. Priority will be given to those efforts linked to existing conservation areas already valued by communities (for example, a project to re-establish a forested buffer zone near a sacred grove).
- Providing enhanced and alternative local livelihoods, including sustainable agriculture and value-added products to support local economies.
- Environmental education that draws on indigenous and local traditions and language to address present-day problems.
- Use of the arts and other innovative methods to convey social and environmental messages.
- Fostering civic engagement of communities through creative facilitation and other methods of stakeholder involvement (such as, public meetings and community-mapping exercises).
For more information, visit http://www.nebf.org/how-to-apply/submitting-a-letter-of-inquiry/