[Coral-List] Reminder: NOAA Intern'tl Coral Grants

[Eileen Alicea]

2007 NOAA INTERNATIONAL CORAL GRANT PROGRAM

An opportunity for funding of international coral reef projects is now 
available through NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program, which 
was published on June 12, 2006 Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO Number: 
NOS-IPO-2007-2000794). This Federal Funding Opportunity description is 
available at: http://ipo.nos.noaa.gov/coralgrants.html. Pre-applications 
for funding are DUE by 11:59 p.m., U.S. Eastern Time, on Monday, 
November 13, 2006, preferably electronically to coral.grants at noaa.gov. 
For full instructions, please read the entire FFO. Final applications 
are by invitation only.

The Fiscal Year 2007 FFO provides specific information on the 
eligibility, proposal content, etc., for each of the four international 
project categories included in this year's funding. Please access this 
FFO in the above web site for all details since the web site is designed 
to provide only a general description of the program.

Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants include all international, governmental (except U.S. 
federal agencies), and non-governmental organizations. For specific 
country eligibility per category, please refer to individual category 
descriptions in Section V. The proposed work must be conducted at a 
non-U.S. site. Eligible countries are defined as follows: The Wider 
Caribbean includes the 37 States and territories that border the marine 
environment of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the areas of 
the Atlantic Ocean adjacent thereto, and Brazil and Bermuda, but 
excluding areas under U.S. jurisdiction. The South Pacific Region 
includes South Pacific Regional Environment Program’s 19 Pacific island 
countries and territories, including the Federated States of Micronesia, 
Republic of Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, but 
excluding U.S. territories and four developed country members. Southeast 
Asia Region includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, 
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The Western Indian Ocean 
Region includes Comoros, France (La Reunion), Kenya, Madagascar, 
Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, the United Republic of Tanzania, and 
South Africa. The Red Sea Region includes five member countries of the 
Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red 
Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA): Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, the Kingdom of 
Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Eligibility criteria are also contingent upon 
whether activities undertaken with respect to the pre- and final 
application would be consistent with any applicable conditions or 
restrictions imposed by the U.S. government.

The International Grant Program has four project categories:

1. Promote Watershed Management in the Wider Caribbean, Brazil, and Bermuda:
IPO will fund activities that promote integrated watershed and coastal 
management practices that reduce or control runoff to near shore coral 
reef ecosystems, including programs that prioritize marine protected 
areas and the conservation of biodiversity within watershed planning and 
management, assess effectiveness of these management practices, engage 
stakeholders and government agencies in collaborative partnerships to 
implement these practices; and recommend a set of best management 
practices that can be applied to the Wider Caribbean region. All 
watershed sites must be identified by name and exact location. Allowable 
activities consist of the following:

a. Analyses of regulatory and legislative frameworks to identify areas 
needing strengthening;
b. Education and outreach to promote integrated watershed and coastal 
management practices;
c. Workshops to enhance stakeholder participation and implementation of 
integrated watershed management;
d. Assessments of land use impacts that threaten to degrade near-shore 
coral reefs and development of management practices to reduce and/or 
eliminate the identified threats;
e. Demonstrations of best management practices or implementation of at 
least one best management practice for the agricultural sector to 
control nutrients, sediments and pesticides that threaten near-shore reefs.

2. Regional Enhancement of Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness:
IPO will fund regional activities at coral MPA sites that are building 
an adaptive management and evaluation program and will conduct an 
assessment of management effectiveness, using the “How is your MPA 
Doing” handbook, in order to strengthen and achieve the site goals and 
objectives. The Management Effectiveness category will emphasize 
regional capacity building in the WCPA-Marine/WWF methodology.

3. Encourage the Development of National Networks of Marine Protected 
Areas in the Wider Caribbean, Bermuda, Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the 
South Pacific:
Through this program, IPO will fund the implementation of national MPA 
network planning processes that contribute to an integrated plan for a 
comprehensive and effective system of MPAs, including the following 
activities:
a) development and coordination of dialogues and partnerships with key 
agencies, academic institutions, and diverse stakeholders;
b) syntheses of the purposes, types, resources protected, and levels of 
protection afforded by existing MPAs and all other relevant marine 
management efforts;
c) assessments of existing legal and policy frameworks for MPAs;
d) national and sub-national (where appropriate) syntheses of 
information on the distribution and status of key resources and habitats 
of marine ecosystems;
e) assessments of gaps in protection for important marine areas;
f) recommended priority areas for consideration in planning for 
inclusion in a national system;
g) assessments of patterns and potential impacts of human uses in marine 
ecosystems; and
h) identifying opportunities and process for engaging transboundary 
planning and collaboration.

Priority will be given to proposals that rely heavily on consistent, 
meaningful engagement of and input by diverse stakeholder interests, 
including indigenous groups and local communities in the planning process.

4. Promote Regional Socio-Economic Training and Monitoring in Coral Reef 
Management in the Wider Caribbean, Brazil, Bermuda, the Western Indian 
Ocean, the Red Sea, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia:
IPO will fund activities that support these regional initiatives and 
include both a capacity-building component (e.g. training workshop) and 
establishment of socioeconomic monitoring programs at three or more 
sites. Regional is defined either as three or more sites in a single 
country or three or more sites between two or more countries. All sites 
must be identified by name and exact location. See 
http://ipo.nos.noaa.gov/coralgrants.html for more information and for 
copies of the global and regional guidelines.

Funding Availability
Up to approximately $500,000 may be available in FY 2007 to support 
grants and cooperative agreements under this program. Approximately 
$75,000-$100,000 may be allocated to each of the four project categories 
listed below, with the following award ranges:

a. Watershed Management: $30,000-$40,000
b. Management Effectiveness: Regional capacity building projects: up to 
$80,000
c. MPA National Networks: $40,000-$50,000
d. Socio-Economic Monitoring Regional projects: $15,000 - $35,000

Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement
As per section 6403(b)(1) of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000, 
Federal funds for any coral conservation project funded under this 
Program may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of the projects. 
Therefore, any coral conservation project under this program requires a 
1:1 match. Matching funds must be from non-Federal sources and can 
include in-kind contributions and other non-cash support. Federal funds 
may not be considered as matching funds. Matching contributions cannot 
serve as match for other grants.

Pre-application Submission Information
Pre-applications may be submitted by surface mail or e-mail. Submissions 
by e-mail to coral.grants at noaa.gov are preferred. Electronic acceptable 
formats are limited to Adobe Acrobat (.PDF), WordPerfect or Microsoft 
Word files. If submitting by surface mail, applicants are encouraged to 
include an electronic copy of the pre-application or final application 
on disk or CD. Federal financial assistance forms are not required to be 
submitted with the pre-application.

Paper pre-applications must be submitted to: David Kennedy, NOAA Coral 
Reef Conservation Program Coordinator, Office of Response and 
Restoration, N/ORR, Room 10102, NOAA National Ocean Service, 1305 
East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Fax submittals will also be 
accepted for pre-applications (Fax: 301-713-4389).

This is summarized information. To access full information about all the 
requirements under the above headings, please read the entire FFO. For 
further information about the international coral grants, please write 
to: International.Coral.Grants at noaa.gov or call 301-713-3078 x218.