Our Commitment

July 23, 2024

How to Write a Successful Conservation Grant Proposal, by Xavier Koenig

Written by Sandrine Maingard

Since August 2023, the Ferney team is implementing a nature-based initiative to build climate Resilience in the Nyon River Watershed, a project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). Responding to a call for proposals at the end of 2022, the project written and submitted by Xavier Koenig (consultant and project lead for Ferney) with the support of Fabiola Monty (NGO Nature Yetu), was successful in securing the first CEPF Large Grant in Mauritius under its current programme.
This June, during a biodiversity workshop organised by Casela and Cap Business Océan Indien, Ferney had the opportunity to share key insights from submitting this successful project proposal, alongside Manoj Vaghjee of Fondation Ressources et Nature (FORENA) who presented donor-specific requirements. During interactive sessions at the event, Xavier spelled out three key requirements to consider when developing a grant proposal:
  1. Know your site, inside-out.
  2. Know the global issues and concepts.
  3. Make the link and propose a relevant project.
Image credit: Arib Patel.

1. Know your site, inside-out.

Firstly, assuming you represent a conservation organisation looking to secure a large grant (>50,000 USD), you probably already have a specific mission, expertise, and plans. To give yourself the best chances when writing a project proposal, you need to master as much as you can about the site where your project will take place. In “site”, understand: the natural ecosystem, its current and past condition (including critical historical events which led to changes), habitat characteristics, the species present and their populations, important landscape features such as rivers and/or geological formations, rainfall patterns, and any other data you might have. As a company, Ferney enabled multiple projects, partnerships and research over time, accumulating a wealth of information we could capitalise on. It also maintains good relationships with local authorities and employs mostly local staff, enabling a strong connection with the community.
Forest map of Ferney in terms of habitat quality.
Building on this general knowledge, it is useful to complete a SWOT exercise, i.e., to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats:
  • Strengths may be your track record, organisational assets such as good governance, a strong finance/accounting department, good relationships with the community, with academic institutions, etc.
  • Weaknesses may be gaps that the funding could help to fill. Although our team had followed multiple training courses on various aspects of ecosystem restoration, it lacked a conservation biologist who would continuously guide the implementation of best practices and investigate new and more cost-effective methods. Other weaknesses might include lack of infrastructure (nurseries, workspaces), remoteness and lack of transport, etc.
  • Opportunities are always there if you can frame issues as such. Is there some vacant land you could use? Are there new methods in the literature that you could implement? Would these improve your cost-effectiveness? Could the site be of interest for scientists, students, or NGOs that could also benefit from helping you in your project? As an example, we learned about the role of pioneer species through Vincent Florens at the University of Mauritius. We will come back to this point further.
  • Threats are potential perils that your project could help prevent or mitigate. Can the project create new employment opportunities? Is your site or the area downstream of your site prone to flooding? Is there an erosion problem leading to the loss of fertile soil? This leads us to our next requirement.

2. Know the global issues and concepts.

In the past, conservation grants might have focused on saving species. Today, in the context of climate change and land degradation, biodiversity loss is highlighted as a systemic issue, so you need to see conservation as such. You will need to speak the donor’s language, which is likely to include the following topics:
  • Climate change: what are the climate hazards, specific to your country and situation, that can impact your site and project? Drought? Floods? Extreme heat? Other?
  • Ecosystem services: what services does your ecosystem provide to other ecosystems and to society? Food? Pollination? Soil formation? Water filtration? Erosion prevention?

 

  • Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) to climate change: how can healthy ecosystems improve resistance and resilience against climate hazards? In other words, which ecosystem services can be reinforced as protection against climate hazards?
  • Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is another formulation for reinforcing the role of nature in both climate change adaptation and mitigation (i.e. including carbon sequestration).
  • Ecological succession, particularly in your ecosystem and climate. This is the natural process through which degraded ecosystems naturally regenerate, when not disrupted by invasive species or other stressors. A very cost-effective restoration method can simply be to remove those invasive species, if there are good quality forests and seed dispersers nearby. Nature will do the rest like it always has. You can also help speed up the process by planting pioneer species instead of climax species that might struggle under certain conditions.

Image credit: ck12.org
  • The role of community inclusiveness is essential, not only in ensuring the social buy-in of your project, but potentially its scale and success as well. By onboarding communities from the project design stage, taking their knowledge in consideration and addressing their needs, you make them your allies. Remember that EbA and NbS should not only contribute to restoring nature but also benefit the communities that rely on them.
As you gather information about the above, look for case studies, success stories, and lessons learned from projects abroad that can be relevant to you or give you some inspiration. If possible, connect with academics/ researchers who can guide you. You will certainly learn a lot and you may uncover some game-changing opportunities. On these aspects, to support the adoption and implementation of best practices, Ferney teamed up with the local NGO Nature Yetu, which regroups an outstanding group of senior and young scientists.

3.Make the link, propose a relevant project.

Once you complete the two steps above, you can now connect the potential contributions of your site and project and the global issues/concepts. Funders now want to see impacts that are relevant at the ecosystem scale, not single species in isolation. If you do plan on acting on certain species, explain its role for the entire ecosystem. For example, fruit bats are pollinators and seed dispersers, essential for natural regeneration processes. Here are a few added points/questions for reflection to help elaborate your project:
  • Considering all the above, what can you propose (as a project), with what you have? That’s a good starting point, because what you already do with what you have, you are very likely to keep on delivering. In Ferney, our nurseries are continually replenished and are at the heart of our conservation work.
  • If what you have is not enough for the impact you want to make, can you include the missing parts in your project budget? Are they realistic (you must demonstrate that you will be able to handle everything)? If not, reduce the scope, until you’ve built capacity for more, later on.
  • Does the project have a compelling story? Will the impacts be visible beyond your data/indicators? Or will something visible be evidence for impact? For example, we do forest restoration in Ferney, but this can be difficult to see for people not familiar with our site and forest composition. Since we had the opportunity to reforest some pasture lands, we included this as a component that is very visible and compelling: any visitor can see a young forest taking shape. In terms of story, sugarcane was once cultivated deep into the valley, then replaced with pastures, and now we are turning this land back to the forest it originally was.
  • On social aspects in Mauritius, think of groups that depend on ecosystems and their services, such as fisher communities. Think villages that are prone to flooding, which would benefit from increased tree cover upstream. Think food security, capacity building (training), job creation, including perhaps through ecotourism or other activities. Building climate resilience also means diversification of revenues, so if one is impacted, communities can rely on others. You’ll want to include a meaningful gender component so that women (who generally care for their families) are not left behind.
  • Finally, as much as you can, think of how your activities can be self-funded in the future. Can you create some kind of value chain or revenue stream from your activities?
Following the MV. Wakashio oil spill of 2020 in the Southeast of Mauritius, a small group of ladies approached Ferney to cultivate a plot of land, as they could no longer harvest seafood from the Ocean. Nearly two years later, our CEPF grant enables the continuation of their training in agroecology, which aims at restoring soil health and improving water retention for better food production. This project component contributes in both supporting the community and restoring ecosystem services on previously degraded land (formerly under sugarcane). In the short term, the ladies are cultivating for their own consumption and for selling the produce in their community, and when they have a surplus, there is an agreement for Ferney’s restaurant to purchase it.

Concluding remarks.

We would like to thank Casela and Cap Business OI for the invitation to this workshop and hope our contribution will be useful to many organisations. The above is obviously non-exhaustive, as all these concepts and practices are the subject of entire books and ongoing research. In this regard, an important component of conservation projects is knowledge dissemination, which we’ll do more of in collaboration with Nature Yetu in the coming months, to share our experience and further support other initiatives in Mauritius and beyond.

About the CEPF:

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Conservation International, the European Union, the Fondation Hans Wilsdorf, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.
With funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through AFD as the GCF accredited entity, and from the European Union through AFD acting as the fiduciary agent, CEPF established and is managing a 10-year program of support to civil society organizations to promote ecosystem-based adaptation in the Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot. Program activities are taking place in Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius and the Seychelles.