Coral Reef Stewardship Fund Grant Program in the US

Deadline: 12-Feb-25

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce the Coral Reef Stewardship Fund Grant Program to improve the health of coral reef systems.

Grants will be awarded to reduce land-based sources of pollution, advance coral reef fisheries management, increase capacity for reef-scale restoration, and to support management in their efforts to increase the natural recovery and resiliency of coral reef systems.

The Coral Reef Stewardship Fund is a partnership with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and receives additional funding support from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Aramco Americas

Program Priorities

• The most competitive applications under this funding opportunity will work directly with local coral reef managers to implement priority projects in the following conservation categories for reefs associated with the priority geographies. U.S. coral reef conservation projects that either fall outside of or only indirectly address these priority categories or geographies are still eligible for funding but are considered a lower priority than those with a direct nexus.
  • Threat Reduction to Priority Reef Sites
    • Projects under this category will support the implementation of activities identified in watershed management plans, marine protected area plans, or fisheries management plan.
      • Establish Water Quality Targets: Projects under this priority must work directly with the appropriate management agency(ies) through scientific and technical assistance to establish water quality targets that directly address coral reef management goals.
      • Reduce Land-based Pollution Inputs to Coral Reefs: Projects should engage local industry, agriculture, community groups, landowners, land managers, and/or individuals in direct sediment and nutrient threat reduction activities
      • Increase Fish Stocks of Key Species Along Priority Reefs: Projects should identify activities that support local managers and communities in reef fish management within priority reef tracts including, but not limited to, training, decision support tools like a cost/benefit analysis of management options, and activities to increase compliance.
  • Coral Reef Emergency Response Preparation and Restoration
    • Projects under this category will enhance a jurisdiction’s ability to implement coral reef emergency response and restoration projects. The expected size of awards through the Coral Reef Stewardship Fund is unlikely to be sufficient to support large-scale restoration efforts, but rather help jurisdictions to prepare for these larger efforts and increase their likelihood for success.
      • Piloting Response Options to Disturbance Events: Projects should take into consideration the history and frequency of the event type at the location and available information on what has been done to date that would support the pilot response
      • Support Out-planting Success: Projects under this category will focus on smaller scale out-planting case studies that seek to learn about the effects of predation, competition, water quality, disease resistance, etc. on survival of outplants or that help streamline logistical hurdles like permitting that can be used to increase the success of larger scale restoration efforts.
      • Increase Capacity for Coral Restoration at Larger-Scale: Projects under this category will increase the number and diversity of corals and associated reef species available for direct coral reef restoration efforts.
  • Increase Institutional Management Capacity in Coral Conservation
    • In a recent survey of coral managers and practitioners in the U.S., responses indicated that the greatest barrier to coral conservation was local agency capacity in the way of staffing, grant-writing, project oversight, and even day-to-day tasks like procurement.
      • Friend Groups and Similar NGO Support: Projects in this category will seek to stand up a friend’s group or foundation that can provide direct support for an agency counterpart and fill gaps in grants writing and management, procurement, volunteer coordination, etc. as needed and appropriate.
      • Resilience Project Development and Support: Projects under this category will work with U.S. jurisdictional managers to characterize the ecosystem services of specific reefs and to understand both resilience benefits and green infrastructure opportunities to assist managers in accessing funding for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), NFWF, NOAA, and other federal resilience funding opportunities.

Funding Information

• The Coral Reef Stewardship Fund expects to have approximately $3,500,000 available for funding this grants cycle.
• Average grant awards will range from $80,000 to $600,000, with higher amounts going to threat reduction and BMP implementation projects, however there is no maximum or minimum requirement. Most awarded projects will be 6 months to 3 years in duration.

Eligibility Criteria

• Projects proposing coral conservation work in any U.S. coral jurisdictions (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands) are eligible and invited to apply.
• Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal governments and organizations, and educational institutions in the United States.
• Ineligible applicants include U.S. Federal government agencies and projects seeking to work on non-U.S. coral reefs.
• Applications for projects in international jurisdictions are not eligible.

For more information, visit NFWF.