African Elephant Conservation Fund

Background
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's mission is to work with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The International Affairs Program delivers on this mission through its financial assistance programs by supporting strategic projects that deliver measurable conservation results for priority species and their habitats around the world. In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed the African Elephant Conservation Act in response to the alarming decline of African elephant populations. The Act provides for the establishment of the African Elephant Conservation Fund to provide financial assistance to support projects that will enhance sustainable conservation programs to ensure effective, long-term conservation of African elephants.
Recently, the African elephant was re-classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) as two separate species, with the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) now listed as 'Critically Endangered' and the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) listed as 'Endangered' under the IUCN's 2020 African elephant Red List Assessment.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) works closely with national governments, U.S. agencies, and a range of other partners to ensure a strategic, results-based approach to conservation of both elephant species across Africa's 37 elephant range countries.
This funding opportunity aligns with the Service mission.

Grant Details
The Service is soliciting proposals for projects that promote conservation of African forest and African savanna elephants through enhanced protection of at-risk elephant populations; efforts to decrease human-elephant conflict (HEC); habitat conservation and management; protected area management in important elephant range; strengthening local capacity to implement conservation programs; trans-frontier elephant conservation; wildlife inspection, law enforcement, and forensic skills; conservation education and community outreach; applied research necessary to inform protection and management; development and execution of elephant conservation management plans or ivory action plans; development of innovative technologies that have the potential to improve elephant monitoring; compliance with CITES and other applicable treaties and laws that prohibit or regulate the taking or trade of elephants or regulate the use and management of elephant habitat; reducing demand for and trafficking of illegal ivory products.

Eligibility Requirements
Applicants can be individuals; multi-national secretariats; foreign national and local government agencies; non-profit non-governmental organizations; for-profit organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; U.S. territorial governments; and Tribes and Tribal organizations.

Period of Performance
The standard period of performance for projects is two years. The anticipated start dates for awards will be after November 2021.

Grant Value
Estimated Total Funding: $5,300,000 Expected Award Amount: Maximum Award - $400,000 Minimum Award - $100,000 Expected Number of Awards: 25 The amount of funding per Federal award may range from $50,000 to $200,000 USD/per year for each project.

Place of Performance
Proposed project work should occur within the range of African forest or savanna elephants, or if work is to be conducted outside of these ranges, the proposal must explain how the work will benefit elephants in Africa.