Deadline: 30-Apr-24
The Fraser Basin Council, in partnership with the Province of B.C., is offering a one-time grant for local governments in 2024 to explore opportunities for funding conservation tools and incentives on private land to enable and expand the role of local governments in conservation.
It is widely acknowledged within B.C. that there are challenges to biodiversity conservation since a large proportion of biodiversity, including species and ecosystems at risk, occur within valley bottoms and coastal areas that are comprised mostly of private land parcels. Incentive tools for private landowners to undertake conservation actions are not available in all parts of the province and, where they are available, there are challenges to their access and implementation
Local governments can use this grant to explore how to develop a private landowner incentive model to achieve biodiversity conservation and climate action goals through carbon storage or sequestration. The grant could also be used as seed funding to investigate how to support private land conservation by developing agreements directly with private landowners.
Funding Information
- The amount available for a local government is expected to be $15,000 to $90,000.
Eligible Activities
- Activities may include:
- Researching private landowner incentive programs and other conservation opportunities from other jurisdictions.
- Conducting public opinion polls within the region to determine local interest in supporting private land conservation or participating in incentive programs.
- Reviewing your local government’s potential conservation financing options.
- Reviewing your local government’s natural assets and/or priority areas for biodiversity conservation (e.g., mapping sensitive areas, inventory of natural assets).
- Developing a local conservation fund service (please see examples above).
- Working on agreements with private landowners and/or non-government organizations.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for the grant, regional districts and municipalities will be required to:
- Focus work on developing and/or expand upon existing incentive models for biodiversity conservation and/or carbon storage and sequestration on private lands e.g., establishing a local conservation funds program that prioritizes maintaining or restoring functioning ecosystems as one of the main goals.
- Engage with First Nations.
- Match the grant 1:1 with non-federal funds and/or in-kind staff time.
- Submit this completed form by April 30, 2024.
- Optional: establish an agreement with a private landowner, either directly or through a non-government organization, with payment to the landowner for specific conservation actions e.g., maintaining existing biodiversity, restoring an ecosystem. Note, this agreement could be a case study using seed funding from the grant to test for potential future agreements with private landowners.
For more information, visit FBC.