Increasing demand for animal-source foods, the diminishing agricultural land in relation to the growing human population and the impact of climatic variability are together placing increased pressure on the natural resource base on which agricultural production depends.
The World Wildlife Fund's Professional Development Grants (PDGs) provide support for mid-career conservationists to pursue short-term, non-degree training to upgrade their knowledge and skills. These trainings can include short courses, certificate trainings or conferences among other training opportunities.
Conservation Workshop Grants fund organizations to train communities, stakeholders, park guards, and others on local and regional conservation issues. These grants support training workshops with a strong hands-on learning component that will build capacity for people living in WWF priority regions in select countries. Please note that within eligible countries, preference is given to applicants working in WWF priority regions.
The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) is a UK registered charity offering ongoing support to outstanding nature conservationists around the developing world. They aim to:
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides financial and technical support to projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's well-being and livelihoods.The programme is rooted in the belief that global environmental problems can best be addressed if local people are involved and there are direct community benefits and ownership.
The principle objectives of SGP are to:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created the Critically Endangered Animals Conservation Fund (CEACF) to provide funding for projects that work to protect critically endangered species in Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.
The Tropical Biology Association supports conservation projects that strengthen the proficiency of their alumni and alumni groups in natural resource management and research. The projects must be designed to solve a specific conservation or research problem in Africa and show impact.
Three types of grants are offered each year:
The SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund was established in 2003 to raise support for grassroots conservation projects that are truly making a difference. Since its creation, the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund has awarded over $11 million in conservation grants to over 800 organizations. Currently, the Fund provides over $1 million each year to conservation programs, and thanks to SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment's administrative support, 100% of the funding raised goes toward these conservation projects.
The Rufford Small Grant offers grants to individuals or small groups for nature conservation projects in non-first world countries that focus on nature/biodiversity issues in non-first world countries, create pragmatic, measurable and long-lasting impact and are a minimum of 12 months duration. The grant must make up a significant part of the total budget and funds must be used predominantly for field-based activities. Applications can be made at any time of the year and these are reviewed once all references have been received.