Applications Invited for Landscape Restoration Grants

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About the Organization

Across Europe, centuries of use have resulted in landscapes and seascapes that are ecologically degraded, fragmented, missing key species and that are vulnerable to climate change. The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) is working to restore nature, demonstrating and delivering a vision for Europe’s landscapes and seascapes where:

• Populations of wild animals and plants flourish;
• There is space for the natural functioning of ecological processes;
• The cultural, social and economic values of nature to people are supported and respected; and
• Nature and people are resilient to ecological shocks and stresses such as climate change.

About the Grant

As a contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, of which the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) is a supporting partner, the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme provides funding for the implementation of large-scale restoration initiatives that restore and harness ecosystem processes, bring nature back to degraded landscapes and seascapes and revitalise local economies. Projects are sources of inspiration, models of good practice, and foci for lesson-learning.

Applications are invited for landscape restoration projects that:

• Restore nature and ecosystem processes at landscape scale to address global, regional or national biodiversity conservation priorities (for species and habitats).
• Establish large-scale systems of continuous or ecologically connected habitat where natural processes are given increased freedom to generate natural patterns and distributions of species (reducing the need for conservation management in the longterm) and which enhance ecosystem and species resilience to the impacts of climate change.
• Demonstrate a good understanding of the mechanism through which they will help overcome one or more barriers to ecosystem recovery (be they ecological, legal, social, economic or political), enabling restoration processes to become self-sustaining.
• Are developed and delivered through a process that involves engagement or partnership with the main landowners and natural resource users, which can show they have support from key actors (state, private, NGOs, communities) within the project area, and which can demonstrate positive community impact.
• Are from project teams and partnerships that are committed to collaboration, have a strong and stable partnership, are already active in the project area, have members that have skills and experience required for landscape restoration, and have a commitment, capacity and strategy for long-term stewardship of the landscape.
• Use approaches and address issues that are of relevance to landscape restoration elsewhere, and therefore have prospects for wider replication.
• Offer value for money and have identified opportunities to use a grant from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme to leverage additional funding.

The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme especially welcomes proposals for projects in geographic areas which are currently not receiving significant conservation attention and/or are underrepresented in the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme portfolio.

The amount awarded per project will be between US$1.5 Million (minimum) and US$5 Million, over five years. To achieve ambitious landscape-scale restoration, organisations (and partnerships) require significant levels of capacity and expertise. The Programme encourages applications for amounts at the lower end of this range as a contribution towards landscape-scale projects funded with co-finance from other donors.

The Oversight and Selection Panel will use criteria 1-7 to assess and recommend projects for funding, and up to 10 grants are expected to be awarded.

Through its selection of projects, the programme aims to create a geographically dispersed portfolio of projects, that address a range of restoration issues, in a diversity of socio-political contexts. In this way the projects funded by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme are pan-European sources of inspiration, models of good practice, and foci for lesson-learning. To this end the programme aims to fund no more than two Landscape Restoration projects and two Seascape Restoration projects in a country at a time (see Section 4 for the list of countries where projects are funded), though the Oversight and Selection Panel will exercise their discretion when making recommendations.

Eligibility

• Applications are invited from partnerships, where organisations contribute according to their individual and complementary experience, expertise and resources.
• We strongly encourage organisations that may not have all the skills and experience required to deliver a landscape restoration project at scale to partner with an international organisation that can provide support with institutional strengthening and capacity building. To that end, up to an additional 10% can be included in the budget, including beyond the maximum amount indicated above (so additional to $5 M), to cover the cost of capacity building and institutional strengthening.
• Collaborations may include international and national NGOs, national and local government agencies, research organisations, utilities companies, community organisations, local landowners, social enterprises, the private sector and others. Government agencies, for-profit companies and individual private landowners should not be major beneficiaries of Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme funding.
• Please note that an application to the 2024 call for a Seascape Restoration Grant cannot be re-submitted for a Landscape Restoration Grant. Any such re-submissions will be rejected.
• Each team should identify a lead partner who will take responsibility for project delivery, coordination, communication and contracting with the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. Lead partners for grants must:

Be not-for-profit organisations.

• Be non-governmental organisations.
• Have previously managed grants of no less than 60% the amount being requested from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme1 .
• Be well-established and currently or very recently active in the project landscape.
• Have prior experience of the type and size of project proposed.

Applicants invited to submit a full proposal in Stage 2 will be required to:

• Provide evidence that they are financially stable (by submitting audit reports from the last 2 years).
• Provide evidence of support for the project from private landowners and the relevant government agencies or statutory bodies with jurisdiction in the project area.

How to Apply

Applying is a three-stage process:

• Stage 1 – Expressions of Interest (EoIs). EoIs from eligible organisations will be reviewed by an independent Oversight and Selection Panel (OSP) made up of distinguished individuals with a range of experience and expertise relevant to European landscapes. Selected applicants will be invited to submit a Project Proposal
• (Stage 2). Up to 20 applications are expected to be invited to proceed to the Project Proposal stage. Stage 2 – Project proposal. Project proposals will be more detailed descriptions that explain how the initiative will address the criteria of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. Proposals will be evaluated by the OSP and, based on their recommendations, between 8 and 10 applicants will be given in-principle approval. Final approval will be given pending applicants adequately addressing any points raised by the OSP, and further satisfactory development of key planning documents in Stage 3.
• Stage 3 – Co-development of project plans. During a funded co-development phase applicants will work with the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme management team to finalise project documents (monitoring plans, etc.).

 At each stage of the process, project applicants (both successful and unsuccessful) will receive notification of the results by email to the project leader identified in the application. Due to the anticipated high number of applications, we will not be able to provide individual feedback at Stage 1.

• Completed applications should be submitted by 22:59 GMT on Tuesday 14th January 2025.
• Applications must be made using the online form on the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme website.
• Organisations can submit a maximum of 3 EoIs. There is no limit to the number of applications in which an organisation is included as a partner.
• Applications not following the guidelines will be rejected.
• The Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme will host a webinar to answer questions on the Landscape Restoration Grants and application process at 11:00 BST on Thursday 24th October 2024. Register here.

For more information please check the Link

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