The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) today announced a request for proposals for nongovernmental organizations to apply to become its regional implementation team in the Caribbean Islands biodiversity hotspot.
The deadline for applications is January 13, 2010.
CEPF is a joint initiative of l'Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International (CI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank designed to help safeguard the world's biodiversity hotspots. As one of the founding partners, CI administers the global program through a CEPF Secretariat.
Nongovernmental organizations are invited to apply for a five-year grant to become the regional implementation team that will lead implementation of the Fund’s $6.5 million investment strategy for the hotspot.
The Caribbean Islands Hotspot is a complex and diverse region of thousands of islands, mainly in three large groups between North and South America: the Bahamas, the Lesser Antilles, and the Greater Antilles. Politically, it comprises 12 independent nations and a number of British, Dutch, French and U.S. overseas territories or jurisdictions.
The CEPF investment strategy focuses on the highest priorities for conservation in the following countries currently eligible to receive CEPF funds as both signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity and World Bank client countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In addition, the Bahamas and Barbados will be priorities for CEPF investment because of their eligibility to receive GEF funds specifically.
The strategy focuses on 45 key biodiversity areas and six biodiversity conservation corridors.
Organizations or consortia of organizations wishing to apply to become the regional implementation team must first submit an e-mail to cepfgrants@conservation.org indicating interest in serving as the regional implementation team in the Caribbean Islands Hotspot. Applicants will then receive full application instructions and an application kit.
View the full request for proposals (PDF - 43 KB).
The regional implementation team will provide strategic leadership and local knowledge to build a broad constituency of civil society groups working across institutional and political boundaries to achieve the conservation goals described in the CEPF ecosystem profile for this hotspot. The maximum funding available for this grant will be $650,000. The team will also directly award and manage all grants of up to $20,000.
A final draft of the CEPF ecosystem profile is available here (PDF - 1.6 MB), including the five-year investment strategy and maps identifying priority sites for investment. The request for proposals is being issued simultaneously with submission of the draft profile to the CEPF Donor Council for review and approval at its meeting on January 15, 2010.
The review and selection process for the regional implementation team, including approval by the Donor Council, is expected to be finalized 3-4 months from the application deadline.