Deadline: 17-Jul-2020
The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation is inviting applications for the Habitat Acquisition Grants.
Habitat Acquisition Grants provide funding for direct acquisition costs and may also include a request for initial management costs and/or property management endowment contribution.
Funding Information
The HCTF Board sets aside a budget of $500,000 for this program each year, and generally funds 2-3 projects
Eligibility Criteria
- Habitat Acquisition Grants provide funds to secure land for the long-term conservation of fish and wildlife habitat in BC. Properties that enhance public fishing and hunting opportunities are generally given priority consideration. Habitat acquisitions previously funded allow for fishing or hunting on the property, or support such opportunities elsewhere, e.g. fish spawning habitat for a downstream fishery. Properties must be located within British Columbia.
- Organization Eligibility
- HCTF accepts Habitat Acquisition Grant proposals from many types of organizations: municipal, regional and the provincial government, and land trust and community organizations.
- HCTF prefers to receive proposals directly from the organization that will hold title and manage the property, but they recognize that sometimes multiple organizations are involved at different stages of an acquisition project—for example, a local community group might coordinate the acquisition for a property but a larger land trust will ultimately hold title. If the organization submitting the proposal will not be the one holding title or managing the property, be sure to include information on both the applicant organization, and the intended title holder and/or manager.
- Note: if the applicant is not going to be managing the land, the applicant may apply for the land management/endowment funding; however, HCTF may grant the management funds directly to the organization incurring costs to manage the land.
- HCTF will not fund property acquisitions where the proponent organization is already the owner of the property and is looking to finance debt recovery or pay off the mortgage.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals are evaluated against a set of criteria as follows:
- Connectivity to other conservation areas (e.g. parks, NGO protected lands, etc.)
- Conservation priority (identified in a conservation plan for the area)
- Species richness
- Presence of species or ecosystems at risk
- Protection urgency/threat
- Management urgency
- Fiscal prudence of organization(s)
- Community support
- Likelihood of long term security and stewardship
- Value for money
- Public recreational opportunities, including fishing and hunting.
For more information, visit https://hctf.ca/grants/habitat-acquisition-grants/#overview