Deadline: 30-Dec-22
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), as regional implementation team (RIT) for the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot, are inviting letters of inquiry (LOIs) from non-governmental organizations, community groups, private enterprises, universities and other civil society organizations active in the eligible geographic areas in Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
This call targets organizations working at the site and corridor levels in the Dominican Republic and supports national, regional, and multi-country capacity building in all other countries.
This investment seeks to improve the capacity of civil society organizations to reduce threats to globally important biodiversity in the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot. Projects supported under this investment should help:
- Civil society organisations increase their capacity to reduce key threats to biodiversity
- Civil society organisations increase their organizational capacity
- Civil society organisations increase their capacity to participate in conservation-related networks
- Priority Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) reduce threat(s) to biodiversity.
Priorities
- Improve the protection and management of 33 priority sites for long-term sustainability.
- Increase landscape-level connectivity and ecosystem resilience in seven priority corridors.
- Safeguard priority Critically Endangered and Endangered species.
- Improve the enabling conditions for biodiversity conservation in countries with priority sites.
- Support Caribbean civil society to conserve biodiversity by building local, national and regional institutional capacity and fostering stakeholder collaboration.
Funding Information
- This call covers funding for small and large grants:
- Small grants are between US$5,000 and US$50,000. The RIT expects small-grant projects under this call to be contracted and start implementation between May and June 2023.
- Large grants are defined as greater than US$50,000. CEPF decides on the amount to be awarded based on the scope and magnitude of the conservation results expected to be achieved. CEPF expects large-grant projects under this call to be contracted and start implementation between June and August 2023
Eligible Countries
- Dominican Republic and national, regional and multi-country/regional capacity building in Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. (Please refer to the Call for Proposals for eligible geographic areas and strategic directions.)
Eligibility Criteria
- Non-governmental organizations, community groups, universities and private enterprises may apply for funding. Individuals must work with civil society organizations to develop applications rather than apply directly.
- To qualify for a CEPF grant, the applicant must not be a government agency or institution.
- Government-owned enterprises or institutions are eligible only if they can establish that they:
- Have a legal personality independent of any government agency or actor;
- Have the authority to apply for and receive private funds; and
- May not assert a claim of sovereign immunity.
- Proposed projects that target direct global environmental benefits and meet the following eligibility criteria are welcome:
- Project is located in the Caribbean Islands Hotspot.
- Project is located in a country that is not subject to sanctions under U.S. law or other applicable law.
- Project supports a strategic direction outlined in the Caribbean Islands Hotspot ecosystem profile and investment strategy.
- Applicant is authorized under relevant national laws to receive charitable contributions.
- Applicant is not a government agency or institution.
Ineligible Activities
- CEPF grants cannot be used for activities on the following “negative list”:
- The use of child or forced labor.
- Purchase and use of formulated products that fall in the World Health Organization classes IA and IB or formulations of products in Class II if they are likely to be used by, or be accessible to, lay personnel, farmers or others without training, equipment and facilities to handle, store and apply these products properly.
- Financing elections or election campaigning.
- Funding salaries or salary supplements of government security personnel.
- Purchase of firearms or other weapons.
- Activities that contravene local laws related to the purchase and consumption of tobacco, alcoholic beverages and other drugs.
- Manufacture of alcohol for local consumption and/or cultivation of crops for this purpose.
- Activities carried out in relation to the adjudication of lands under dispute.
- Physical resettlement of people (voluntary or involuntary).
- Purchase of land.
- Activities that have the potential to cause adverse impacts on critical habitats.
- Conversion, deforestation or degradation of natural forests or other natural habitats, including, among others, conversion to agriculture or tree plantations.
- Activities related to commercialization of illegal timber and non-timber forest products.
- Construction and/or restoration of religious buildings.
- Removal or alteration of any physical cultural heritage property (includes sites having archeological, paleontological, historical, religious or unique natural values).
For more information, visit https://www.cepf.net/grants/open-calls-for-proposals/2022-caribbean-small-large-4