Please note the below information is the 2021 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund. There is no active call for proposals. Please check back for future NOFO announcements.
The Marine Turtle Conservation Fund is a financial assistance program that supports projects that deliver measurable conservation results for marine turtles around the world. Pursuing an evidence-based approach, we publish strategic geographical and thematic priorities and application guidelines in a Notice of Funding Opportunity. All proposals go through a rigorous and competitive evaluation process. Once project support is confirmed, we engage in a partnership with the grantee, providing technical support as needed, communicating on a regular basis, and playing an active role in monitoring and evaluating the project's success. This helps ensure that our limited funding is effective and enables us to improve the impact of the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund through adaptive management.
Background
The goal of this program is to reduce threats to marine turtles in their natural habitat. Proposals should identify specific conservation actions that have a high likelihood of creating lasting benefits. Project activities that emphasize data collection and status assessment should describe a direct link and benefit to management action. 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 disqualified.
Marine Turtle Conservation Fund Requirements
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s marine turtle program prioritizes projects that fulfill the intent of the Marine Turtle Conservation Act. The marine turtle program is therefore seeking and will only accept project proposals that promote the conservation of marine turtles by focusing on the following activities and priority nesting populations as described and identified below:
- Activities that protect nesting females and eggs on important nesting beaches;
- Developing local human and institutional capacity for marine turtle conservation and management through training;
- Cultivating the conservation values, interests, and actions of target audiences through conservation education, community outreach, social marketing and other relevant tools and mechanisms;
- Developing and implementing measures to address fisheries by-catch threats to priority nesting populations (see below);
- Incorporating an interdisciplinary approach that includes social, economic, policy, and legal considerations of marine turtle conservation;
- Integrating problem solving, conflict resolution, and participatory approaches that are socially, culturally, politically, and economically enduring in the country/region where the project activities take place;
- Developing and executing marine turtle conservation management plans;
- Habitat conservation and management;
- Information exchange to promote international collaboration;
- Promotion of networks, partnerships, and coalitions that assist in the implementation of conventions, treaties, protocols and other international activities that promote regional collaboration and maximize coordinated conservation and management of marine turtles;
- Protected area/reserve management of important nesting beaches, and;
- Strengthening local and national capacity to implement conservation programs on nesting beaches.
2021 Priority populations and activities for the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund
- Leatherback nesting populations in the Pacific, South Atlantic and N. Indian Ocean;
- Loggerhead nesting populations in the North Pacific, Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean, and North Indian Ocean;
- Major hawksbill nesting populations in the Caribbean, Africa Atlantic coast, Pacific, and Southeast Asia;
- Olive ridley nesting populations in the N. Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia;
- Green turtle nesting populations in the Mediterranean, Africa Atlantic coast, and Western Pacific;
- Kemp’s ridley nesting population on primary nesting beaches in the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico;
- Proposals that address and/or directly complement conservation activities directed at fisheries by-catch threats to priority nesting populations identified above and foraging populations in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Eligibility
Applicants can be individuals; multi-national secretariats; foreign national and local government agencies; non-profit non-governmental organizations; for-profit organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; U.S. territorial governments; and Tribes and Tribal organizations.
Process
States and Territories must submit applications through Grantsolutions.gov. Detailed guidance on how to prepare applications is provided in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) available online at Grants.gov and Grantsolutions.gov. The NOFO should be read carefully to ensure that applications meet all eligibility requirements and are complete upon submission.