Applications Invited for Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) Project

About the Organization:

The Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) is a non-profit international organization dedicated to advancing sustainable forest management and rehabilitation in the Asia-Pacific region.

APFNet Call for Project: 

The Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet), proposed by China and co-sponsored by Australia and the United States, was agreed by the 15th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in September 2007 in Sydney, Australia and was incorporated in the Sydney APEC Leaders’ Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development.

APFNet is committed to helping the economies and people of the Asia-Pacific region by promoting and improving sustainable forest management and rehabilitation.

In-line with its strategic plan, APFNet would like to announce its call for project proposals. Eligible applicants are encouraged to submit concept notes. Please refer to the instructions below for details on the application process.

Principles:

Applicants should keep the following principles in mind when developing a project:

• Conformity with the mission and objectives of APFNet;
• Conformity with the needs of the target economy / sub-region;
• Conformity with the forest policies, development strategies and related laws of local communities;
• Ability to bring potential ecological, economic and social benefits via forest management;
• Encouraging multi-stakeholder participation;
• Strengthening the capacity of local forest practitioners in managing forests.

Project Categories:

• Demonstration projects which showcase best practices in forest rehabilitation and management in a cost-effective manner;
• Research or policy development projects which focus on theoretical or APFNet technological research in the forest sector or assessment and improvement of existing forestry policies and development of new forest strategies and strategic plans; and
• Capacity building projects that concentrate on institutional capacity enhancement including institutional planning and decision-making and enforcement.

Priorities:

Proposed projects should be closely related to the key priorities of APFNet, which are:

• Rehabilitating degraded forests and increasing forest cover;
• Promoting sustainable forest management to enhance ecological functions and ecosystem security of forests;
• Enhancing forests’ contribution to socio-economic development and to improvement of local livelihoods.

As well as being consistent with APFNet’s objectives and mission, proposed projects should also aim to be in-line with the priorities and the actual needs of the project target areas in terms of forest management, and contribute to the social-economic development of local areas.

Grant Policy: 

• Projects seeking an APFNet grant of less than USD 100,000 are applied for and identified through the APFNet Secretariat review process and can be directly approved by the Executive Director of APFNet. However, this kind of project only accounts for 10% or less of APFNet’s newly funded projects on an annual basis; In principle, projects on policy research and scientific technology research can only be applied for small projects;
• Regular projects are identified through the APFNet PAP technical review and approval process. Normally projects requesting an APFNet grant above USD 100,000 fall into this category. The total grant for a two or three-year project can be up to USD 500,000;
• APFNet’s financial status, the regional balance of projects, the year of application and the score of a project proposal will mainly be taken into account when determining if a potential project will receive APFNet funding.

Eligible Applicants:

In order to be eligible for a grant, an applicant must be:

• A legal person or an entity with corporate capacity;
• Based in APFNet member economies or a member organization of APFNet;
• Directly responsible for the preparation and implementation of the project with their partners, not acting as an intermediary;
• Able to demonstrate their administrative and financial experience and capacity to manage activities in sustainable forest management and rehabilitation according to the scale and budget of the proposed project.

(The above information must be included in or annexed to the project concept note.)

Eligible Partners:

Applicants should act with partner organizations as specified hereafter, creating a balanced partnership:

• Partnerships should be comprised of governmental agencies or non-profit organizations including but not limited to NGOs, international organizations, industry associations, universities, research institutes;
• Partners participate in designing and implementing the project, providing technical and expertise supports to the project;
• Each member of the partnership must have a precise and clearly defined role in the grant application form for the implementation of the project. The partnership should be composed in such a way to achieve the project objectives most effectively and efficiently;
• Applications in which all members of the partnership contribute financially to the project are particularly welcome;
• Subcontractors are not partners, and are subject to the relevant rules set out in the Agreement or local law.

Eligible Projects:

• The proposed project is composed of a series of coherent activities;
• The expected duration of the project cannot exceed 36 months;
• Project concept notes/proposals should follow the Project Concept Note/Proposal Format of APFNet;
• The project concept notes/proposals which are not covered by any priority established by APFNet will not be considered. The main problems to be addressed by the project must be articulated in the project concept notes/proposals;
• Project concept notes/proposals in which innovative approaches of ensuring implementation of sound forest policies and project concept notes/proposals which require cross-sector cooperation are encouraged;
• An applicant may submit more than one concept note/proposal at one time.

However, only one proposal can be considered.

Application:

• Applications are accepted throughout the year.
• CN submitted before 30th April will be appraised before the end of the year. The original CN in hardcopy must be submitted to the APFNet Secretariat before 17:00 pm Beijing time, 30th April in a sealed envelope delivered by registered mail, courier service or hand-delivery.
• CN submitted after 30th April will be appraised the following year.

Website: www.apfnet.cn

Email: wang_qian@apfnet.cn

For more information please check the Link

Tags Environment and Sustainability Others