Deadline: 23-Oct-23
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is inviting applications to enable community organisations to take collective action for adaptive landscape management in building socio-ecological resilience in the Middle and Upper Baram, Sarawak for global environmental benefits and sustainable development.
The Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides grants to NGOs, CBOs and local communities for community level conservation, restoration and sustainable livelihood interventions. The seventh Operational Phase (OP7) of the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Malaysia aims to build upon the long-standing achievements of SGP in the country, specifically involving strengthening civil society organisations and improving socioeconomic conditions for local communities through the implementation of participatory conservation, restoration, and climate change mitigation interventions.
In OP7, the project in Middle and Upper Baram, Sarawak aims to foster collaboration among regional community organisations in the landscape. In addition, the project promotes activities related to forest conservation within the targeted landscapes, community livelihood improvement, community participatory in biodiversity conservation and restoration, landscapes undergoing improved practices, policy reforms for the sustainable resource management and climate mitigation projects.
The project aims to reach an estimated 3,150 direct beneficiaries, 50% of whom are women, the project will facilitate community-driven interventions that generate global environmental benefits, including bringing an estimated 8,000 ha of landscapes under improved practices, 3,000 ha of landscapes under sustainable land management in production systems, restoring 200 ha degraded agricultural lands and 100 ha forest lands, as well as achieving 8,000 ha of landscapes that meets national or international third-party certification, from all the projects executed under the SGP within the Baram landscape.
Scope of the Assignment and Indicative Activities
- All project activities must also be in line with the draft landscape strategy developed by the landscape strategy grantee. Note that the landscape strategy will be updated periodically as the situation on the ground evolves, please check for the latest version with SGP Secretariat. In the process of developing the project’s proposal, it is crucial to consider the following focuses (either one or more than one) in the overall project’s strategy.
- The potential projects include the following (but not limited to):
- Biodiversity and Land Degradation:
- Improved management of forest ecosystems to benefit biodiversity and promoting naturebased livelihood options (incl. ecotourism) for local communities;
- Strengthened community forest management, building capacities for establishment of a Baram Eco-Community Forest, including community mapping;
- Participatory restoration of degraded forest land as part of improved landscape management/avoided deforestation/degradation;
- Empowering local community in developing sustainable agriculture for livelihoods and enhanced land management and participatory restoration of degraded agriculture ecosystems;
- Through dialogue with logging concession holders and government stakeholders, enhance social and economic well-being of local communities through sustainable management and utilisation of forest resources;
- Documentation of traditional knowledge related to biodiversity (e.g., traditional knowledge recordings, resource classification systems, etc);
- Climate resilience agriculture such as agroforestry, syntropic and regenerative agriculture;
- Marketing and social enterprise for livelihood improvement.
- Climate Change Mitigation:
- Fuel-efficient cook stoves
- Micro- and pico- hydroelectric generators for off-grid communities
- Solar PV for off-grid communities
- Biogas (at community level) for cooking
- Gasification system & turbine generator producing both power and biochar
- Biodiversity and Land Degradation:
Funding Information
- The maximum amount per grant project will be limited to US$ 50,000. The applicant should request the grant based on the estimated expenditures required to conduct proposed activities, not the maximum grant available.
Project Duration
- All projects must be undertaken and completed ranging from 12 months to a maximum 24 months’ time frame and all projects must be completed by December 2025. The funds will be distributed on a milestone completion basis.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Organisations:
- Locally registered Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)/Community-Based Organisations (CBOs)/Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), with an existing copy of the certificate of registration.
- Local registered bank account of the organisation.
- Unregistered CBOs or CBOs without bank accounts, please contact SGP Secretariat for the potential arrangement of an intermediary contract with established NGOs.
- The organisation demonstrates strong organisational capacity to implement SGP grant projects and meet SGP requirements.
- Languages used in the documentation: both Malay and English are accepted.
For more information, visit UNDP.