FY24 Asian Elephant Notice of Funding Opportunity
The Asian Elephant Conservation Fund Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) provides support to projects that deliver measurable conservation results for Asian elephants. Administered by the Service’s International Affairs program, the Asian Elephant Conservation Fund Program provides financial and technical assistance in support of projects that will enhance sustainable conservation programs to ensure effective, long-term conservation of Asian elephants.
Requirements
The goal of the Service’s Asian Elephant Conservation Fund NOFO is to perpetuate healthy populations of Asian elephants in their native range by supporting the conservation programs of range states.
The Asian Elephant Conservation Fund recognizes the common goals and priorities of the 13 Asian elephant range state governments as stated in the Kathmandu Declaration for Asian Elephant Conservation and supports projects that promote conservation of Asian elephants and their habitats through:
- Support of protected area and habitat restoration and management in Asian elephant ranges;
- Promote coexistence by minimizing the negative impacts of humans on Asian elephants and their habitats, address the root causes of human-elephant conflict, and develop solutions to minimize such conflict;
- Engage with local communities to gain their participation in biodiversity conservation and land-use planning, and provide sustainable and alternative livelihoods;
- Ensure effective protections across the species’ range to prevent illegal killing of Asian elephants and the illegal trade in live Asian elephants, ivory and its derivatives, and other elephant body parts;
- Enhance cooperation between the 13 range states to promote transboundary conservation of Asian elephants;
- Develop and execute elephant conservation management plans;
- Compliance with CITES and other applicable treaties and laws that prohibit or regulate the taking or trade of elephants or regulate the use and management of elephant habitat;
- Improve habitat connectivity by establishing wildlife corridors and minimizing the impacts from linear infrastructure; and
- Applied research on elephant populations and their habitats, including surveys and monitoring.
Guidelines for Proposed Projects
The Guidelines for Proposed Projects are as follows:
- Projects should focus on wild, rather than captive, populations of Asian elephants and occur within the range of the Asian elephant. If work is to be conducted outside of the range, the proposal should show a clear relevance to wild Asian elephant conservation.
- Project activities that emphasize data collection and status assessment should describe a direct link to management actions and include an explanation on how the lack of information has been a key limiting factor for management actions in the past.
- Applicants should clearly indicate how data generated by proposed activities will be made available to the Asian elephant conservation community.
- Applied research projects should address specific management needs and actions.
- Projects proposing to address human-elephant conflict (HEC) should follow the key principles and good practices detailed in the IUCN SSC guidelines on human-wildlife conflict and co-existence and demonstrate prior meaningful engagement with stakeholders such as local communities.
- Projects that propose prevention of damage from HEC must show that the intervention is known to be functionally effective, ethically and culturally appropriate, feasible, and perceived as effective, and the relevant stakeholders are aware of the limitations.
- Proposals should identify specific conservation actions that have a high likelihood of creating lasting benefits.
- Proposals that do not identify how actions will reduce threats or that do not demonstrate a strong link between data collection and management action will be rejected.
Funding
The approximate amount of funding available under this program is $7,000,000 USD. The amount of funding per federal award may range from $300,000 - $750,000 USD. The amount of funding per award, on average, will be $500,000 USD.
The amount of funding requested must match the scope of the activities, anticipated results, and the length of the project period. For multi-year projects, project activities should be clearly articulated in phases/years and support for future phases/years will be contingent on project performance, satisfactory reporting and financial management, and availability of program funds. The anticipated start dates for awards will be June 2024 or later, and periods of performance may range from 3 – 5 years.
The expected award date is June 01, 2024.
Budget and Process
Applicants must include an itemized budget. An example budget spreadsheet, budget narrative, and sample budget table are available on our website. These are optional documents to serve as an example of what information applicants must include in their budget and budget narrative and how to convey that information.
Applications may be submitted electronically no later than 11:59 PM EST on January 31, 2024, through GrantSolutions.gov, or alternatively through Grants.gov and must be submitted in English. Late applications will not be accepted.
A confirmation email containing an assigned application number beginning with “FWS-” will be sent to applicants upon submission. If you do not receive this email within five days of the opportunity closing date, contact mscf_asianelephant@fws.gov. Do not submit your application more than once. Duplicate applications will be discarded.
Eligibility
Applicants can be individuals; multi-national secretariats; foreign national and local government agencies; non-profit, non-governmental organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; and U.S. territorial governments.
See the NOFO for full details on the application requirements and process. The NOFO should be read carefully to ensure an application meets all eligibility requirements and is complete upon submission.