Deadline: 7-Oct-20
The Nature Heritage Fund is now open for applications for funding the permanent protection of freshwater or coastal wetlands in the West Coast region (West Coast Regional Council boundaries).
Wetlands are permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water, and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals adapted to wet conditions.
The Nature Heritage Fund is a contestable Ministerial fund that was established in 1990 to help achieve the objectives of the Indigenous Forest Policy. In 1998 the scope of the fund was widened to include non-forest ecosystems.
Objectives
- The objective is to enable, facilitate, and support activities directed at the protection of indigenous ecosystems, through helping to permanently protect representative, sustainable, landscape and amenity values of indigenous ecosystems.
- It does this by purchase of interest, or, while leaving the land in private ownership, through covenanting, leasing, accords, and management agreements.
Core Criteria
Proposals are assessed against four core criteria listed below as well as other material required in applications.
- Representativeness: Ensures that viable or sustainable examples of all-natural ecosystems are protected by approximately the same proportions in which they were originally present in the natural landscape. The aim is to protect both common and rare species habitats and communities, and the ecological processes and interactions that link them.
- Sustainability: Ensures that the natural values proposed for protection can be sustained within the protected area by determining whether the values for which the area is protected will persist in the long term. Size and shape of the protected area, how well it is protected or buffered from the effects of surrounding land uses, and existing and potential threats are all considered, along with linkages to other protected areas.
- Landscape integrity: The extent to which an ecosystem contributes to the original integrity of the landscape. It is important to ensure the original character, context, and range of processes that link the various ecosystems are maintained, along with the natural nutrient cycles, energy flows, and hydrology.
- Amenity and utility: Natural ecosystems contribute to people’s physical and spiritual welfare, providing educational, heritage, recreational, tourist, and other amenity value. They also contribute ecosystem services including conserving soil, maintaining water quality and supply, and storing carbon.
Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants include:
- private landowners;
- local and regional government bodies and local authority trading enterprises;
- professional and community-based organizations;
- local, regional, and national “umbrella” organizations; and
- Central government departments and agencies. Applications are encouraged from multiple organizations who wish to form funding and/or future management partnerships.
For more information, visit https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/funding/nature-heritage-fund/how-to-apply/