The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) will award grants to improve the health of coral reef systems.
Donor Name: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
State: Selected States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 02/09/2023
Size of the Grant: $80,000 to $400,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
Grants will be awarded to reduce land-based sources of pollution, advance coral reef fisheries management, increase capacity for reef-scale restoration and to support management in their efforts to increase the natural recovery and resiliency of coral reef systems.
The Coral Reef Conservation Fund is a partnership with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and receives additional funding support from the USDA National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and Aramco Corporation.
Program Priorities
The most competitive applications under this funding opportunity will work directly with local coral reef managers to implement priority projects in the following categories for reefs associated with the priority geographies above. Coral reef conservation projects that either fall outside of or only indirectly address these priority categories or geographies are still eligible for funding but are considered lower priority than those with a direct nexus.
Threat Reduction to Priority Reef Sites Projects
The most competitive applications under this category will support implementation of activities identified in watershed management plans, marine protected area plans or fisheries management plans with an increased priority for activities that benefit reefs at the above locations. Applicants should identify the specific plan where applicable including the year it was finalized, the relative priority of the activity to others in the plan, the measurable goal/target for this activity and the contribution to that target that the project seeks to achieve.
- Establish Water Quality Targets: Projects will work at one of the listed watersheds above or the broader jurisdictional level to establish criteria and science-based targets for nutrient and sediment reduction. Projects under this priority must work directly with the appropriate management agency(ies) through scientific and technical assistance to establish water quality targets that directly address coral reef management goals. Further priority will be given to projects that focus on targets for a specific location and document the process and criteria in such a way that it can be used as a road-map for establishing targets in other watersheds for the jurisdiction.
- Reduce land-based pollution inputs to coral reef tracts: Projects should engage local industry, agriculture, community groups, landowners, land managers, and/or individuals in direct sediment and nutrient threat reduction activities such as stream restoration, green infrastructure, promoting the use of native planting materials, and best management/conservation practice installations to reduce sediment and/or nutrient flow to reefs, or efforts to reduce polluted runoff through water conservation or grey water re-use as prioritized in established management plans. Proposals should incorporate specific performance targets to monitor the effectiveness of project activities in reducing threats to nearshore coral reef ecosystems, including estimates of percent reductions in a given threat as a result of specific project activities and how these reductions relate to established goals.
- NRCS Guidance – There are NRCS funds available for projects with a nexus to agricultural working lands in US Coral Reef Task Force Priority Watersheds and/or that increase Farm Bill program participation and conservation practice implementation among agricultural producers, especially farmers and ranchers in the Historically Underserved and Special Emphasis categories. This priority is targeting land-use and land-use change, nutrient and sediment runoff, sewage treatment, streambank stabilization, buffer improvements, and improved sediment and erosion control.
- Increase fish stocks of key species along priority reef tracts: Projects should identify activities that support local managers and communities in reef fish management within priority reef tracts including but not limited to training, cost/benefit analysis of management options and activities to increase compliance. Proposals should incorporate specific performance metrics to monitor the effectiveness of project activities toward increasing fish biomass within key functional roles over the long term. Priority taxa for this work include Parrotfish Families, Surgeonfish Family and hogfish (L. maximus).
- 2023 Priority – Reef Fish Assessments were listed by jurisdictional managers as an increasing priority for U.S. coral reef management. Projects that demonstrate cooperation with the management entity and specific use of assessment data will be prioritized.
- Respond to and Prepare for Episodic Events: Projects should include activities to develop or implement response plans for priority reef areas for episodic events such as outbreaks of disease, large bleaching events and invasive species. Proactive response may include intervention treatments and/or the rescue of corals from affected areas as appropriate.
- 2023 Priority – Projects that work to respond to areas affected by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) will be a priority this year. Activities may include but are not limited to response planning, surveillance for the appearance of SCTLD, intervention through the application of disease treatments, the rescue of corals from affected areas and measures to prevent the spread. Guides, training and learning exchanges to assist managers and NGOs that are just starting to deal with SCTLD in PR and USVI are also encouraged.
Coral Reef Restoration
Projects under this category will help jurisdictions prepare to implement coral reef restoration projects at scale. The expected size of awards through the Coral Reef Conservation Fund is unlikely to be sufficient to support large-scale restoration efforts but rather prepare for these larger efforts and increase their likelihood for success.
- Increase Capacity for Coral Restoration at Scale: Projects under this category will increase the available number and diversity of coral and associated reef species available for direct coral reef restoration efforts. Activities may include but are not limited to training in propagation techniques, establishing new nursery capacity and/or increasing the climate resiliency of nurseries, techniques to scale-up propagation, and exploring the needs of new and complex lifecycle species
- Support Out-planting Success: Projects under this category will focus on smaller-scale out-planting case studies that seek to learn about predation, competition, water quality, disease resistance, etc. or help streamline logistical hurdles like permitting that can be used to increase the success of larger scale restoration efforts. Projects can also coordinate with existing out-planting activities on larger scale projects to further refine techniques to increase success and test approaches.
- 2023 Priority– Special interest in learning exchanges beyond large conferences and publications for practitioners across the jurisdictions that are implementing this work.
Increase Management Capacity in Coral Conservation
The Coral Reef Conservation prioritizes applied research that responds to needs identified by jurisdictional coral reef managers. Projects under this category will work with a specific management partner to fill a critical gap in coral conservation to directly support a management decision. Competitive projects under this category will identify a specific management audience and question and will have results accessible to coral practitioners beyond a journal publication.
- 2023 Priority– Assistance for US jurisdictional managers to characterize the ecosystem services of specific reefs and to understand both resilience benefits and green infrastructure opportunities that will assist managers in accessing funding for FEMA, NFWF, NOAA and other federal resilience funding opportunities. Activities may include but are not limited to preliminary engineering and design work or reef assessment for ecoservices modeling.
Funding Information
The Coral Conservation Fund offers one grant cycle per year and available funding is expected to be approximately $1,000,000. Average grant awards will range from $80,000 to $400,000, however there is no maximum or minimum requirement. Projects should be 6 months to 3 years in duration. Matching funds from non-U.S. Federal cash or in-kind sources are required at a 1:1 ratio for most projects.
Geographic Focus
Projects proposing work in any U.S. coral jurisdictions (American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands) are eligible to apply.
Eligible and Ineligible Entities
- Eligible applicants include non-profit organizations, state government agencies, local governments, municipal governments, Tribal governments and organizations, and educational institutions, including parties within and outside of the United States.
- Ineligible applicants include U.S. Federal government agencies and for-profit entities.
- NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program staff are available and encouraged to provide general information on programmatic goals and objectives, ongoing coral reef conservation programs/activities, and regional funding priorities; however, NOAA employees are not permitted to assist in the preparation of applications or write letters of support for any application. If NOAA employees will be a collaborator on a project, they may provide a statement verifying that they are collaborating with the project applicant, confirming the degree and nature of the collaboration, and acknowledging the utility of the proposed work. NOAA employee activities, including travel and salaries, are not allowable costs.
For more information, visit Coral Reef Conservation Fund.
