The Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust is providing grants to facilitate the protection, restoration, improved resilience and sustainable use of South Africa’s species and eco-systems.

These grants are provided to conservation bodies which are Public Benefit Organisations engaged in physical biodiversity conservation and working in the cross-cutting environmental governance and advocacy, climate change, research and education arenas.

Themes

The funding strategy has five overlapping themes:

• The Improvement of Biodiversity Conservation
  • Objective: To reduce direct pressures on biodiversity with regard to species, habitat and eco-systems
  • Outcomes: Funding applications submitted must demonstrate 1 or more of the following intended outcomes
    • Reduction in the rate of loss, degradation of natural habitats including forests and fresh water systems
      • Conservancies / promoting stewardship / corridors
    • Improvement in eco-system functioning, restoration and resilience
      • Invasive alien species identification, control, eradication and prevention of reintroduction
    • Reduction in indigenous fauna and flora species decline
• Climate Change Mitigation
  • Objective: To limit the extent of climate change
  • Outcomes: Funding applications submitted must demonstrate 1 or more of the following intended outcomes
    • Improvement in and protection of carbon stocks
      • Reforestation
      • Forest management
    • Minimising waste
      • Community based green recycling initiatives
• Research
  • Objective: To assist Public Benefit Organisations to undertake research into the overlapping biodiversity conservation, climate change, environmental governance and advocacy areas.
  • Outcomes: Funding applications submitted must demonstrate 1 or more of the following intended outcomes
    • Collation and distillation of learning from existing research into knowledge that can be applied
    • Meeting priority knowledge gaps
    • Initiating and implementing innovative conservation outcomes
• Environmental Governance and Advocacy
  • Objective:To assist conservation bodies to achieve an improvement in environmental governance and advocacy.
  • Outcomes: Funding applications submitted must demonstrate 1 or more of the following intended outcomes
    • Increased public participation in and submissions made on draft legislation
    • Capacity building for enhanced environmental advocacy on the part of community based organisations
    • Law enforcement officials undergo appropriate accredited training and are able to effectively monitor and ensure compliance to environmental policy
• Environmental Education and Awareness
  • Objective:To increase the number of environmentally conscious citizens
  • Outcomes: Funding applications submitted must demonstrate 1 or more of the following intended outcomes
    • Primary and Secondary school learners participate in well-designed environmental awareness programmes that complement the school curriculum and /or its gaps
    • Members of community based organisations acquire increased new environmental knowledge through well-designed capacity building programmes and are able to apply this knowledge in community run environmental programmes
    • Post Matriculants acquire theoretical and practical knowledge that ready them for careers in the conservation field via accredited certificate and diploma courses

Funding Information

• Grants amount to an average of R400 000 per annum depending on the Strategic Theme funding is requested for and relative to organisational capacity to absorb funding.
• Community based organisations that have limited organisational capacity and that are in existence for less than 2 years should apply for grants not exceeding R175 000 per annum.

Criteria

• Online applications will be invited once a year. Please strictly follow the on-line application link and formats. Applications submitted in any other format will be declined.
• Please carefully study the Trust's Strategic Themes, objectives and the outcomes it seeks to achieve.
• In your online application you are required to indicate clearly which Trust Strategic Theme, related objective and outcome(s) your organisation's proposed programme / project seeks to meet. Applications submitted without this information will be declined.
• Following a desk top assessment, a site visit will be conducted to selected applicants as part of an effective assessment process.
• Given the overlapping nature of the Strategic Themes, one organisation may during the financial year obtain funding for more than one project – provided it does not exceed the annual average grant of R400 000 and provided that one on-line application is made to this effect.
• As the Trust understands that achieving sustainable environmental improvement is a process, it, may in instances, decide to provide multi-year funding toward this end. This is however, done depending on the Strategic Theme, programmatic objectives, subject to satisfactory programme implementation, the achievement of outcomes and adherence to reporting requirements.
• The Trust will provide funding for programme costs and related running costs in order to facilitate effective programme implementation.
• No bursaries for individual students will be provided.
• Research costs for specific research projects as per the Strategic Themes, undertaken by PBOs, may however, contain a minimal component of student fees.
• No endowment funding will be provided – all grant funding is to be expended on programme and related running costs within the agreed upon time frames.
• No conference attendance and related travel costs will be provided.
• No marketing or fundraising costs will be provided including sponsorship of advertisements, auctions, golf days, raffles, special events, publications etc.

For more information, visit Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust.