[Coral-List] NOAA FY18-19 International Coral Reef Conservation Funding Opportunity

[Eileen Alicea - NOAA Affiliate]

Funding Opportunity Description:
The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) provides matching grants
for international coral reef conservation projects. CRCP solicits proposals
that will support the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program’s International
Strategy 2010-2015 (International Strategy). The International Strategy
focuses on supporting existing regional efforts in four priority regions
based on their interconnections with U.S. reef ecosystems
and existing initiatives and partnerships. The following three priority
regions will be considered under this Federal Funding Opportunity: the
Wider Caribbean, South East Asia and South Pacific, and Micronesia.
Funding for the Fiscal Year 2018 competition is subject to the availability
of Congressional appropriations and is expected to be approximately
$600,000. NOAA expects each applicant will request between $75,000 and
$300,000 annually for an award with a project period up to two years.
Funding after the first year generally depends on future Congressional
appropriations, NOAA/CRCP priorities, and recipient performance in the
first year(s) of the award.

Proposals should address policies specific to the targeted priority region.
Proposed projects must fall under one of three categories below:

(a) Wider Caribbean Management Capacity Proposals: Applicants with projects
involving Wider Caribbean Management Capacity must take into account the
following NOAA-Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute Assessment at the
Caribbean Marine Protected Area Management Network and Forum (CaMPAM) web
site, "A Management Capacity Assessment of Selected Coral Reef Marine
Protected Areas in the Caribbean" (NOAA-GCFI Assessment), which can be
found at http://campam.gcfi.org/CapAssess/CaMPAMCapacityAssessment2011.pdf.

(b) Micronesia: To be competitive, applications for Cooperative Agreements
in Micronesia should include two or more countries and address at least two
International Strategy goals and at least two of their corresponding
objectives. The proposed project/s may include: 1) management planning and
effectiveness evaluations; 2) community engagement program development; 3)
integrated biophysical and socioeconomic monitoring that will inform
decision makers; and 4) communication to the public, stakeholders and
policy makers about project impacts and lessons learned on coral reef
conservation. Applicants should describe how they intend to work closely
with policy/decision makers and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that,
to the greatest extent possible, the information is considered when making
decisions about coral reef conservation.

(c) South East Asia and South Pacific community-based marine management:
Applicants with projects involving community-based marine managed areas
should address Goal 1 Objectives 1.2 and 1.3 of the international strategy,
include local communities in planning and implementation of project
activities, and promote national or trans-national networks of locally-
and/or community-based marine managed areas in any of the following
countries in the South East Asia and South Pacific regions: Cook Islands,
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Nauru,
Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,
Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste,
Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. Proposals that contribute to only one locally
managed marine area will not be considered.

Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, non-profit
organizations, non-U.S. government natural resource management agencies,
foreign public entities and foreign organizations, and for-profit
organizations. An eligible organization may include proposed
sub-recipients, contractors, or other collaborators, which may include
governmental authorities, effectively forming a team.

FOR FULL DETAILS, search
https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html for Federal Funding
Opportunity number NOAA-NOS-OCM-2018-2005319.