Darwin Plus offering Environment Funding for the UK Overseas Territories

Deadline: 9 July 2019

Darwin Plus (also known as The Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund) is seeking applications to provide funding for:

• environmental projects in UK Overseas Territories
• fellowships for UK Overseas Territories (OT) Nationals to increase their knowledge and ability to meet long-term strategic outcomes for the natural environment in UK Overseas Territories

In Round 8 the fund will achieve its objectives by supporting both:

• Darwin Plus projects focused on environment and climate change issues in the UKOTs
• Fellowships for promising individuals to acquire skills and knowledge that will contribute to achieving Darwin Plus objectives

Objectives of the fund

Darwin Plus supports projects working on environment or climate change issues in the UKOTs.

• The key priorities for Darwin Plus in Round 8 are:
  • delivering a Blue Belt of marine protection around the OTs
  • conservation and effective management of coral reef, seagrass meadows and mangrove forest ecosystems
  • dealing with invasive non-native species
  • waste management strategies, particularly those with a focus on plastics
  • responding to, and mitigating against, the impacts of natural disasters on the OTs implementing National Biodiversity Action Plans
  • conservation, restoration and wise use of wetlands
• In this round, they are particularly keen to see projects which:
  • pursue new and innovative approaches that could be “game-changing”, and/or which have strong potential to be replicable elsewhere, particularly at larger scale
  • involve partnerships in order to provide greater capability for the partners involved to deliver environmental projects
  • aim to test or pilot an approach or idea that has the potential to be developed into a larger project in future
  • incorporate the use of natural capital
  • look at the opportunity for synergies between tackling climate change and halting or reversing biodiversity loss

Eligibility Criteria

• Darwin Plus projects
  • Funding is open to any organization as long as the proposed project will benefit one or more of the UK OTs (listed below) by to protecting and enhancing their biodiversity or addressing wider environment or climate-related issues.
    • Applicants can include:
    • OT governments
    • non-governmental organizations
    • research institutions
    • the private sector
    • other stakeholders
• Darwin Plus Fellowships
  • The applicant organization will usually be UK-based and the proposed Fellow must be an OT national who has worked or is working on environmental issues in the UK OTs.
  • The 14 UK Overseas Territories are:
    • Anguilla
    • Bermuda
    • British Antarctic Territory
    • British Indian Ocean Territory
    • The British Virgin Islands
    • The Cayman Islands
    • The Falkland Islands
    • Gibraltar
    • Montserrat
    • The Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie & Oeno Islands
    • Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (including Gough Island Dependency)
    • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
    • Sovereign Base Areas, Akrotiri and Dhekelia (on Cyprus)
    • The Turks & Caicos Islands

How to Apply

Applicants can apply online via given website.

For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/darwin-plus-applying-for-projects-in-uk-overseas-territories