Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot

Deadline: 18 August 2014

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund along with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) invites non-government organizations, community groups, and other civil society organizations to submit Letters of Inquiry to conduct projects in Indo-Burma hotspot except Myanmar.

Spanning nearly 6,000 meters in elevation, from the summit of Hkakaborazi in Myanmar, Southeast Asia’s highest mountain, down to a coastline along the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea, Indo-Burma hotspot supports a wide variety of habitats and thus high overall biodiversity. The hotspot comprises all the non-marine parts of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, plus parts of southern China.

The major objective of CEPF for Indo-Burma Hotspot is to engage civil society in the conservation of globally threatened biodiversity through targeted investments with maximum impact on the highest conservation priorities.

Component, Strategic Directions and Investment Priorities

Component: Protection and Stewardship of Priority Sites

Strategic Direction: Empower local communities to engage in conservation and management of priority key biodiversity areas

Investment Priorities

1. Raise awareness about biodiversity conservation legislation among target groups at priority sites
2. Pilot and amplify community forests, community fisheries and community-managed protected areas
3. Develop co-management mechanisms for formal protected areas that enable community participation in all levels of management
4. Conduct a gap analysis of key biodiversity areas in Myanmar and support expansion of the protected area network using community-based models

Component: Enhancement of Ecological Connectivity and Results

Strategic Direction: Engage key actors in mainstreaming biodiversity, communities and livelihoods into development planning in the priority corridors

Investment Priority

1. Support civil society efforts to analyze development policies, plans and programs, evaluate their impact on biodiversity, communities and livelihoods, and propose alternative development scenarios and appropriate mitigating measures where needed
2. Integrate the biodiversity and ecosystem service values of priority corridors into land-use and development planning at all levels
3. Develop protocols and demonstration projects for ecological restoration that improve the biodiversity performance of national forestry programs
4. Engage the media as a tool to increase awareness and inform public debate of environmental issues

Component: Development of a Conservation Constituency

Strategic Direction: Strengthen the capacity of civil society to work on biodiversity, communities and livelihoods at regional, national, local and grassroots levels

Investment Priority

1. Support networking activities that enable collective civil society responses to priority and emerging threats
2. Provide core support for the organizational development of domestic civil society organizations
3. Establish clearing house mechanisms to match volunteers to civil society organizations’ training needs

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Countries for the fund under this call are Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Applicants can be non-government organizations, community groups, and other civil society organizations or government agencies (if they meet some above specified criteria).

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