Association Burkinabè de Fundraising

The definition of "landscape" includes marine environments and a wide range of non-urban wilderness areas. Projects should conserve, protect, enhance, restore and/or reconnect habitats within a given landscape that are particularly important for biodiversity.

This focus on biodiversity will also address the importance that EOCA places on the issue of climate change. Projects must ensure that the habitats conserved are those that sequester carbon, reduce emissions, enable adaptations to climate change and/or protect against further habitat and biodiversity loss.

It is also very important that projects benefit the local communities that live in or near these habitats. Projects should highlight how they encourage local management of habitats, alleviate poverty, support local ecosystem services, and have a link to the outdoor enthusiasts who value these precious wild spaces.

Priority areas

The two main areas that need to be addressed in your application are

• Protect, enhance or restore key threatened species, habitats or wider ecosystems in 'wild' areas
• Consider the needs of the outdoor enthusiast

Project results

Your application must include 3 easily identifiable and measurable outcomes to show how the project will solve the above problems. They should consider:

• Conservation measures addressing specific problems and root causes (5 points)
  • What are the identified threats to the species / habitat / ecosystem? What are the impacts of these threats? How will these threats be removed, mitigated or better managed? How will the habitat/ecosystem be protected, enhanced or restored? How will the project produce the desired results? How will the experience of the local community, visitors and the habitat be improved in the long term?
• Involvement / commitment of local people (5 points)
  • For a project to be sustainable, it is essential that the local population is fully engaged. If local communities and communities of interest are not involved, they may feel no need or desire to ensure that the good work that has been started continues in the future. Obviously, if specialist work is to be done, skilled experts may need to be recruited, but wherever possible, projects will involve the local community, giving them ownership of the project and its outcomes, and contributing to their livelihoods during and after the project.
• Education and communication (5 points)
  • Education and communication should target both local communities and visitors. Education should include communication of responsible ways to enjoy the project area, suggestions on how visitors and local people can reduce threats to species, habitat or the ecosystem, and ways in which they can help protect the biodiversity of the project area. How will you effectively reach out to potential visitors to the area and communicate with the local community, and how will this process continue once EOCA funding for the project is complete?

Eligibility criteria

• The organizations non-profit organisations can apply to EOCA for grants of up to €30,000 to implement a conservation project of up to 24 months duration in any country in the world, with the exception of North America (USA and Canada - where the Conservation Alliance funds conservation efforts by the North American outdoor industry).
• Project applications MUST :
  • protect an endangered species or habitat;
  • have a link with the outdoor enthusiast;
  • involve practical conservation work.

For more information, please visit EOCA .