The Rapid Response Grants of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management (BIOPAMA) Action Component are designed to respond to risks and difficulties induced by the COVID-19 crisis in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

The Rapid Response Grants aim at increasing the resilience of protected areas and local communities’ livelihoods facing the risks and difficulties of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available for the Rapid Response Grant Call for Proposals is up to two million euros (EUR 2 000 000).
• SIZE OF THE GRANTS: Any grant requested under this call for proposals must be no more than the maximum amount of EUR 50 000 with no co-financing required.
• DURATION OF THE GRANT: Rapid Response Grant proposals submitted in response to this call can have a maximum duration of 12 months.
• LOCATION OF THE ACTIVITIES: Actions must take place in one or several of the eligible ACP countries* and within priority areas**

*Exceptions: Cuba: not eligible for EDF funding. South Africa: While natural and legal persons established in South Africa are eligible to participate in procedures financed by the 10th/11th EDF, South Africa cannot be a beneficiary of contracts financed by the 10th/11th EDF. South Sudan: Transboundary activities involving South Soudan are eligible.

** Priority Areas, in wider conservation landscapes, include inter alia, key landscapes for conservation (where identified in ACP Countries), Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), Marine Managed Areas or other protected and conserved areas, where their importance is justified by diagnostic tools or strategic documents in ACP Countries, including SIDS.

Eligible Activities

Applications should respond to emergency situations requiring rapid action, rather than proposing programmatic action on long-standing issues. Applications should address one of the main RRGs objectives:

• Enhanced management and governance of protected or conserved areas;
• Increased resilience to major shocks and recovery of the protected and conserved areas including sustainable/innovative funding planning;
• Maintained livelihoods and/or enhanced resilience of local communities to major shocks caused by COVID pandemic, whilst effectively contributing to protected areas management.

To be eligible, activities must:

• Address emergencies resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions put in place to contain it;
• Be consistent with the objectives of BIOPAMA RRG (as presented above):
• Comply with IUCN Environmental and Social Management System;
• Enable data and information sharing from the project with the BIOPAMA Regional Observatories and RIS;
• Be cost-efficient and sustainable;
• Be of practical field application and limited in time to avoid dependency on the support provided by the Action Component.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for a BIOPAMA AC Grant, applicants must:

• be public or private legal entities (e.g. a registered/incorporated company or organisation) registered as a separate legal entity in an eligible ACP country;
• be already involved in the management, governance and community livelihoods of the targeted ACP priority areas.
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the grant; not acting as an intermediary;
• not be a beneficiary of any other grant funded by the European Union (including EDF funds) for the same activities.

For more information, visit BIOPAMA.