F24AS00158 - Marine Turtle Conservation Fund

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (Service) mission is to work with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The International Affairs Program delivers on this mission through its financial and technical assistance programs by supporting strategic projects that deliver measurable conservation results for priority species and their habitats around the world. In response to the alarming decline of marine turtle populations worldwide and serious threats to their long-term survival, the U.S. Government enacted the Marine Turtle Conservation Act (MTCA) of 2004, and subsequently amended. The purpose of the MTCA is to assist in the conservation of marine turtles and their nesting habitats in foreign countries and U.S. territories by supporting projects that conserve marine turtles in their habitats, conserve the nesting habitats, and address other threats to the survival of marine turtles. The goal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (Service) Marine Turtle Conservation Program is to recover and sustain viable populations of marine turtles in the wild by reducing threats to these marine turtles in their natural habitat. We do this through financial and technical assistance to support evidence-based, quantifiable interventions with regular evaluations that shape our conservation strategy to carry out the purpose of the MTCA. Our strategy encompasses the following key objectives to meet our goal: Marine Turtle Conservation on Nesting Beaches: Conserving marine turtles in their nesting habitats (including undisturbed nesting turtles, in-situ nests and hatchlings reaching the surf unobstructed) through collaborative, measurable actions to reduce threats from coastal development including artificial lighting and other human-induced disturbances, while promoting responsible beach use and coastal resiliency.Reducing Exploitation: Supporting community-driven initiatives to curb poaching by developing alternative livelihoods, co-developed with local stakeholders, and launching behavior change outreach programs based on social science concepts.Combating Trafficking: Strengthening legal protections for marine turtles by collaborating with governmental and regional entities and building partnerships that focus on sharing intelligence in a timely and coordinated manner to identify and address gaps in law enforcement capacity and judicial processes. Additionally, implementing outreach programs to reduce the demand for marine turtles.Implementing Marine Turtle Bycatch Reduction: Building collaborative, implementable solutions with stakeholders to reduce marine turtle bycatch in fisheries (both interaction and mortality), through modifying fishing gear and practices guided by bycatch reduction assessments, local ecological knowledge, and active engagement with fishing communities.Competitive projects will work to support the Service's key objectives and enhance long-term conservation capacity for marine turtle populations. We broadly define capacity to include: 1) the capacity of habitat to sustain marine turtle populations through threat reduction, nesting beach protection and coastal resilience strategies, and 2) the capacity of individuals and institutions at local and national levels to champion the conservation of marine turtles in those countries and regions. We prioritize the following actions to bolster long-term marine turtle conservation capacity within the broader Service program goal:Cultivate enduring conservation capacity and engagement among local and indigenous communities, local and national non-governmental organizations, government bodies, and other pertinent stakeholders. Support the growth of local conservation initiatives that promotes opportunities to build skills of interdisciplinary practitioners relevant to marine turtle conservation.Implement structured knowledge exchange programs between communities, governments, regional and international entities that include effective techniques to reduce critical threats to the survival of marine turtles in their habitats and promote nesting beach resiliency. Develop and implement community-led action plans that prioritize sustained threat reduction, with consistent monitoring to identify and alert relevant entities for more urgent or expanded attention if increased threats are identified. Proposals should demonstrate how project activities directly address one or more of the key objectives and actions, including specific monitoring and evaluation plans with identified metrics.For this Notice of Funding Opportunity, while all projects that work to implement the Service's goal is eligible for funding, marine turtle populations in the Pacific Ocean including Southeast Asia (as listed below) will be prioritized.Loggerhead turtles: North Pacific and South Pacific populations Green turtles: Central South Pacific and Central West Pacific populations Hawksbill turtles: Populations in the Pacific including Southeast Asia Leatherback turtles: Populations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia Olive Ridley turtles: Populations in Southeast Asia