Deadline: 11-Aug-22
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is soliciting proposals to improve populations of focal seabirds through actions that increase survival and reproduction.
NFWF’s Seabird Conservation Program is supported by a program business plan (an updated Pacific Seabird Program business plan is in development and is scheduled to be available by fall 2022).
Seabirds represent a diverse group of birds whose life history is linked to marine and coastal resources. The overlap of seabirds and humans on islands, in the coastal zone, and in the marine environment has driven a number of species to the brink of extinction. Seabirds forage at sea, often far from breeding sites; disperse over vast distances; and are both colonial and solitary breeders. Consequently, a major challenge to effective seabird conservation is to mitigate human-induced threats at multiple temporal and spatial scales; in other words, to protect and restore locations utilized by seabirds throughout their entire life cycle (on both land and at sea).
Priorities
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Management of non-native, invasive animals: Introduced animals alter fragile island ecosystems through direct predation on seabirds and by destruction of breeding habitats. Focal geographies for this activity include all four geographies.
- NFWF will consider proposals that advance and implement eradications on Clarion Island, MX (Townsend’s shearwater), Floreana Island, Ecuador (Galapagos petrel), Rapa Iti (islets), French Polynesia (Rapa shearwater) and on Peruvian and Chilean islands supporting breeding Humboldt penguin. Additional eradication actions will be considered on a case by case basis.
- NFWF also seeks projects that advance in situ protection of nesting Galapagos petrel, Hawaiian petrel, Newell’s shearwater, and Humboldt penguin through installation or repair of fencing and/or predator control.
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Restoration: Invasive plants degrade nesting habitat; sea level rise threatens low lying colonies, and human actions can impact survival and reproduction of seabirds. Focal geographies for this activity include all four geographies
- NFWF seeks proposals that advance habitat restoration for black-footed albatross (Kure and Midway Atolls), Galapagos petrel (private lands, multiple islands) and waved albatross (Espanola Island, Ecuador).
- NFWF also seeks proposals that advance social attraction and species translocations to establish resilient breeding populations for the following focal species (Ainley’s storm-petrel, black-footed albatross, Hawaiian petrel, Newell’s shearwater, Phoenix petrel, Polynesian storm-petrel, and Townsend’s shearwater).
- NFWF welcomes proposals that involve outreach to communities, foster community engagement, and increase organizational and individual technical capacity to assess, monitor and address threats for focal seabird species. When possible, projects should be developed through community input and co-design processes. Additionally, projects should engage community-level partners to help implement, and maintain projects to secure maximum benefits for communities, maintenance, and sustainability post-grant award. Proposals that advance opportunities to build diversity of early career scientists pursuing marine bird studies will also be considered.
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Bycatch reduction: Seabird bycatch by fisheries is a global problem, killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds annually. Focal geographies for this activity include the California Current, Hawaiian archipelago, and the Humboldt Current.
- NFWF seeks proposals that assess and fill data gaps on bycatch risk, including integration of large data sets to better understand bycatch risk and potential hotspot locations. NFWF will also support actions that foster research and innovation of fishing gear and mitigation techniques, and that support outreach and training, towards adoption and use of best practices and effective mitigation measures in fisheries with an emphasis on fisheries that impact black-footed albatross, Humboldt penguin, and waved albatross. Proposals advancing bycatch reduction actions for pink-footed shearwater in Chile will be considered.
- In Ecuador, NFWF is partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to address species at risk from plastic ingestion. The focus will be on building population resilience by addressing and mitigating for other stressors impacting populations, like bycatch in fisheries operations. For this priority, NFWF and USAID seek proposals that address bycatch of waved albatross in continental and Galapagos based fisheries. Supported actions will include bycatch assessment and port surveys of captains and vessel owner/operators, outreach and capacity development in communities about seabird bycatch and plastic ingestion as a risk factor for seabirds in Ecuador, mitigation gear trials and development, deployment of proven mitigation and monitoring. Total funding available for this RFP priority is $450k.
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Research and Monitoring: The wide-ranging, pelagic nature of seabirds is a challenge to understanding and addressing conservation needs. NFWF will invest in research, monitoring, prioritization exercises (including decision support tools) and assessment actions to improve the effectiveness of species conservation, strategies, and the delivery and reporting of conservation actions for focal species.
- This RFP seeks projects that support effectiveness monitoring for ongoing or recently completed project activities benefitting pink-footed shearwater in the Juan Fernandez Islands.
- They also seek projects that improve coordination and standardization of monitoring for Galapagos petrel and Humboldt penguin.
- Projects that advance decision support tools informing seabird conservation planning and prioritization will also be considered.
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Prospective species: The following prospective focal species and sites require additional information and/or investment before NFWF can include them as species with measurable conservation goals in the business plan.
- band-rumped storm-petrel (Hawaii). The Hawaiian band-rumped storm-petrel is listed as endangered under ESA. Basic information is lacking. To date, most conservation has been coupled with work for Hawaiian petrel and Newell’s shearwater. For this RFP we seek projects that advance knowledge gaps and scope the feasibility of establishing one or more protected populations through fencing and social attraction.
- Bryan’s shearwater (Japan). Bryan’s shearwater is only confirmed nesting on a single island in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. Basic information and capacity to address species threats are lacking. Black rats and invasive plants are known threats. For this RFP they seek projects that advance species data gaps including breeding distribution, a population assessment, a threat assessment, and threat reduction.
- Craveri’s murrelet (Mexico). NFWF seeks projects that support actions to address data gaps including a threat review (bycatch, marine pollution, forage depletion, predation/disturbance) and the completion of an assessment of current distribution using standardized methods.
Funding Information
- The Seabird Conservation Program has approximately $5,000,000 to award in funding for grants this year.
- Overall, while upper and lower thresholds are not been strictly defined for this RFP, in 2022 awards should generally fall within a range of $50,000 to $1,000,000.
- For USAID funds they will have approximately $450,000 to award in 2022
Geographical Focus
The 2022 Request for Proposals (RFP) will consider projects from four broad geographies within the Pacific:
- California Current,
- Hawaiian Archipelago,
- Humboldt Current, and
- locations in the central tropical Pacific supporting the priority species
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include: non-profit 501(c) organizations, Federal government agencies, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal Governments and Organizations, educational institutions, international organizations, and businesses.
- Ineligible applicants include unincorporated individuals.
For more information, visit NFWF.
For more information, visit https://www.nfwf.org/programs/seabirds/seabird-conservation-program-2022-request-proposals