Top 6 Grants for Conservation Projects

Conservation safeguards the ecosystem by using natural resources sensibly. For instance, sustainable logging techniques are often used in forest conservation to reduce deforestation. The best way to conserve our natural resources is to be sustainable in our practices and care for the environment. Working for environmental protection has become increasingly vital in modern times.

One of the ways we strive for sustainability is by venturing into innovative sustainable projects, projects that would aid in the preservation and conservation of life on Earth. If anyone can come up with an idea to improve life, it would be much appreciated. In fact, there are foundations and organizations willing to sponsor them.

You could be provided with grants for conservation projects or preservation projects. The goal is to improve our general well-being and the sustenance of life on Earth.

Top 6 Grants for Conservation Projects

• IKI Small Grants component ‘International Calls’
• Wildlife Acoustic Grant Program
• The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge
• XPRIZE Carbon Removal
• The National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative
• Photo Ark Species Impact Initiative

1. IKI Small Grants component ‘International Calls’

The ‘Funding Institutions’ IKI Small Grants component increases national and regional institutions’ ability to carry out their own funding program in their respective nations or areas.

GIZ provides selected institutions with technical assistance and up to 850,000 euros in cash to establish their own call for proposals or funding lines for modest projects and local initiatives.

There are 5 million euros available in total. The selection procedure for the funding component

Eligibility Criteria concerning the applicant organizations:

• Organizations submitting applications must be non-profits. If they strictly pursue non-profit goals within the parameters of their proposed project, for-profit non-government organizations are eligible.
• Applicants must have their primary residence and registration in one of the nations on the DAC List of ODA Recipients. Please be aware that submissions from nations who are officially or tentatively candidates for membership in the EU are not acceptable. Ukraine is not included in this.
• Organizations need to have been in operation for three years or more.
• The organization’s average yearly revenue over the previous three years had to be at least 60,000 euros and not more than 500,000 euros.
• The requested financing volume should be greater than (or equal to) the average yearly revenue for the previous three years.
• The maximum turnover for qualifying organizations (as noted in our financing information) is not exceeded by the average annual revenue. 
• The candidate must have a dedicated accounting team and adhere to accounting norms that guarantee both internal and external control systems.
• The applicant organization must use an accounting software system that complies with applicable national requirements. (Excel is not regarded as adequate.)

Project eligibility requirements are as follows:

• Clearly addressing one of the IKI funding areas is required for project proposals:
• Protecting natural carbon sinks/REDD+
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Adapting to the effects of climate change
• Preserving biological diversity
• The suggested initiatives should have a minimum duration of 12 months and a maximum duration of 3 years. Longer periods of time could be permissible with the right justification.
• Projects must be carried out at the local, state, or federal levels. Globally focused projects are not eligible for funding.
• The organization submitting the application must carry out the projects themselves. Funds cannot be forwarded to additional implementing partners or recipients.
• The amount of financing requested (as stated in our funding information) is the appropriate multiple of your annual revenue.
• All required documentation is included with the application.
• A basic concept for capacity development must be included in projects.
• All provided materials, including spreadsheets of Excel documents like the budget and GANTT chart, are fully completed.
• The current templates offered on this website have been used (avoid reformatting or making changes to prevent unintentional errors).
• An English-language project proposal must be submitted.

2. Wildlife Acoustic Grant Program

Wildlife Acoustics is pleased to offer a grant program that offers researchers products and software to aid in the study of bats, birds, frogs, and other vocal wildlife. This program supports the advancement of animal biology research, habitat monitoring, and environmental conservation.

What It Does

Wildlife Acoustics will provide grant recipients worldwide with up to $12,000 worth of qualified products each quarter. Each applicant may ask for products and software licenses worth up to $4000. Additionally, winners have the chance to have their work highlighted on our website and social media pages.

Recipients of grants must be connected to a nonprofit, educational, or other tax-exempt organization.

Projects that fulfill the following requirements will be taken under consideration:

• The project promotes scientific understanding and aids in long-term conservation by heavily relying on recordings of wildlife vocalizations for data gathering and/or analysis.
• The grant would have a big impact on the project’s success.
• The application includes specific predicted outcomes and the requirement for bioacoustics data to support those outcomes, which is sufficient information to permit project evaluation.
• The project has to get started within a year of being awarded.

Requirements

If you receive a grant, you will be required to:

• Accept the grant in writing and agree to its terms and conditions.
• Remain in touch with Wildlife Acoustics and send them project updates four times a year.
• When possible, include Wildlife Acoustics, Inc.’s assistance in any presentations, meetings, publications, and/or other materials that come out of the study.
• All portions of the application must be completed in English, and the final report must be submitted within two months after the project’s completion, or that phase of the project.
• One letter of recommendation is required, but you are allowed to submit up to two, as long as you believe they will help the application be evaluated. They must be written in English.
• You will be required to submit a copy of the organization’s tax-exempt status documentation, such as a letter of tax exemption or certificate, along with your application. You are liable for paying any applicable taxes in nations without these.
• You can save your work and come back to it later to finish and submit your application if you are unable to do it all at once.

How to Prepare

Applications are assessed every three months. You are welcome to submit your application for the following quarter if you miss a quarterly due date. When you submit your application, our system will automatically send you an acknowledgment.

Shipping information

• If you get a grant, we’ll get in touch with you to finalize the specifics of the shipment. Wildlife Acoustics cannot ship to Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or Iran, nor to anyone we know who will bring our products to those countries.
• You can apply for our grant here.
• They will handle all freight fees, but you will be responsible for any duties and taxes for international shipments.

3. The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge

There are numerous contests that concentrate on social entrepreneurship or early-stage investments. The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge stands out because it emphasizes scalable financial solutions.

You are urged by the Sustainable Investing Challenge to think about using financial and investment tools to make an effect on your own. It is one of the rare opportunities for students to develop their skills and receive feedback while creating actual ideas that are relevant to this important and expanding field.

In order to address some of the most urgent global concerns that lie ahead, the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge looks for excellent solutions that offer innovative investment techniques. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to be close to 9 billion, making it more difficult to meet human demand for finite resources in the world.

In order to address this challenge, finance will play a crucial role. More institutional investors are now looking for sustainable investment alternatives for their portfolios.

These investors specifically look for investment methods that can help their organizations achieve their financial needs by making investments in funds, investment vehicles, or direct investments that are in line with the sustainability and impact guiding principles.

Teams are urged to consider ideas outside of social enterprises, venture capital fund structures, and business plans. You must present and defend a sustainable impact investing strategy for this competition that employs money and investment techniques to develop a novel response to an environmental or societal problem.

The fact that you are developing a financial vehicle and the fact that your financial vehicle will have an impact on society and/or the environment are essential components of this competition. The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge is seeking novel investment concepts that strike a balance between social and financial return, as opposed to sacrificing either aim.

Teams are urged to use their imaginations, and there are no restrictions on the asset classes or investment vehicles. Instead of companies, the emphasis is on investment vehicles and fund strategies.

Location: Online

Benefits

• Teams made up of students from various colleges and programs are allowed to compete in the Challenge, and there is no cap on the number of teams from one school that can enter.
• All graduate students are eligible to enter the contest.
• There is no cost to take part.
• There are no fees associated with participation in the finals, including lodging and travel.
• A $10,000 grand prize.
• Runner up will get $5,000.

Eligibilities

• Teams may only contain a maximum of four (4) people.
• At the time the prospectus is submitted, every team member must be enrolled in a graduate program. Undergraduates are not qualified.
• Members of your team might attend various graduate programs.
• All concepts must originate with the team members.

4. XPRIZE Carbon Removal

Fighting climate change and restoring the Earth’s carbon cycle are the two main goals of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal project. This $100M competition, funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, is a remarkable achievement and offers the greatest incentive reward in history.

According to climate math, gigaton-scale carbon removal will be necessary in the upcoming decades if we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

By the year 2050, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that 10 gigatonnes of net CO2 removal will be required a year to keep the increase in world temperature to 1.5 or 2C.

This four-year international competition welcomes inventors and teams from all over the world to develop and present methods that can sequester carbon dioxide permanently and sustainably by taking it directly out of the atmosphere or the ocean.

Any carbon-negative solution that achieves net negative emissions permanently sequesters CO2 and demonstrates a sustainable route to low cost at gigatonne scale is eligible, including those based on nature, direct air capture, oceans, mineralization, and others.

On April 22, 2021—Earth Day—team registration began once the complete competition rules were made public. The contest will run for four years, until Earth Day 2025.

Teams for the XPRIZE come from all around the world. Teams can be made up of college students, high school students, entrepreneurs, small- to medium-sized businesses, community-based organizations, families, or other persons. One of the first steps you can take to contribute to building a better future for everyone is registering to create or join a team.

Teams must demonstrate CO2 removal at a 1000 tonne per year scale, model costs at a million ton per year (megatonne) scale, and provide a strategy for eventually reaching a gigatonne per year scale sustainably in order to be eligible for the prize. Teams are required to at least present the key element of their carbon removal solution during the competition’s first round.

Teams are allowed to submit entries for hybrid, engineering, and natural solutions.

The winners will share the $100 million prize pool

Up to 15 Milestone Prizes worth $1 million each will be given out by the judges once the competition has been going for a year. These prizes may be given conditionally, at the judges’ discretion, provided that the winning team continues to work on improving their solutions and contending for the top prize.

Judges will decide the winners after 4 years:

• A single Grand Prize winner will get $50 million;
• up to three runners-up will have $30 million shared among them

In the fall of 2021, student teams were eligible to receive up to $5 million from XPRIZE.

These grants may be used to assist entry into the XPRIZE Carbon Removal or the creation of vital auxiliary technologies. Please refer to the competition guidelines for further details.

5. The National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative

Big Cats Initiative of the National Geographic Society to Become Great Plains Big Cats Initiative Under Explorers at Large Dereck and Beverly Joubert

The Big Cat Initiative (BCI), which provided more than 150 funds for projects in 28 nations to protect big cats and their vital habitats, will be built upon by the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative.

The Large Cats Initiative (BCI) of the National Geographic Society was established more than ten years ago with the goals of reversing the decrease of large cats in the wild and increasing public awareness of the dangers big cats were facing.

BCI has had a significant influence on big cat conservation through partnerships with National Geographic Explorers at Large and famous conservationists and filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The program they co-founded with the Society will now be managed and carried out by the Jouberts as part of the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative.

In order to protect big cats and their vital habitats, the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative will build on the achievements of the BCI, which distributed more than 150 funds for projects in 28 different nations.

BCI has built 2,000 livestock enclosures to assist reduce human-wildlife interaction with big cats, removed 13,000 snares that were life-threatening to big cats, and helped almost 3,000 large cats in the wild.

By promoting the award recipients’ efforts, disseminating the Jouberts’ inspirational films and photographs, and sponsoring Big Cat Week every year on Nat Geo Wild, National Geographic increased the influence of BCI on a global scale.

The Society is still dedicated to the preservation of big cats and has redoubled its efforts to aid Explorers working to safeguard wildlife, especially by creating new grant opportunities.

Expanding the scope and scale of this crucial work, the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative will be seeking grant applications and ongoing support for all big cat projects worldwide. Visit the greatplainsfoundation.com website to find out more about the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative.

6. Photo Ark Species Impact Initiative

The Photo Ark Species Impact Initiative is launched by the National Geographic Society. By utilizing the Photo Ark’s potent narrative capabilities, this new conservation initiative will make a significant financial contribution to local conservation efforts to safeguard threatened animals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (as of APRIL 4, 2023) –– A brand-new conservation initiative financed by and inspired by the Photo Ark was unveiled by the National Geographic Society as the National Geographic Photo Ark Species Impact Initiative.

Through a peer-reviewed grant selection process, science-based, on-the-ground conservation projects will be supported. As part of its promotion of the Photo Ark, the Society will also raise awareness of conservationists, their efforts, and its focus species.

George Gann, a conservationist with 40 years of experience and the founder, president, and board chairman of The Institute for Regional Conservation., received the first Species Impact Initiative grant.

As a National Geographic Explorer, Gann will utilize the cash for a habitat restoration project in Southern Florida’s pine rocklands ecosystem to safeguard and restore the Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak butterfly (Strymon acis bartrami) and Miami tiger beetle (Cicindelidia floridana), both of which are federally endangered species.

The Photo Ark is a multi-year project that attempts to catalog every species found in zoos, aquariums, and wildlife sanctuaries around the world while bringing attention to and looking for answers to some of the most urgent problems affecting wildlife and their ecosystems.

How Conservation Helps the Environment

The necessity to protect the environment from further deterioration is clarified by the following considerations:

• To protect biodiversity
• Promote sustainable development
• Implement sustainable air, water, and land use
• Reduce air, water, and land pollution,
• Facilitate the conservation of natural resources for future generations
• Protect our planet from the negative effects of global warming.

Conclusion

Protecting the environment and the future of life through conservation is not easy. It is time, money, and energy-consuming. That is the major reason behind these grants for conservation projects. There are certainly many other grants out there but, you could start with these to improve our lives.

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