Asian Elephant Conservation Fund

The Asian Elephant Conservation Fund solicits project proposals for the conservation of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) throughout its range. Asian elephants have disappeared from an estimated 95% of their historic range, with current wild distribution covering only 486,800 km2. Of the remaining 5% of their range, only 51% is considered wildland, with the rest impacted by agriculture, linear infrastructure, fire, and other human activities. Only 16% of these wildlands are protected and, therefore, most Asian elephants exist outside of protected areas in fragmented, human-dominated landscapes. This interface leads to human-elephant conflict, a major threat to both people and elephants. In addition to habitat loss and human-elephant conflict, poaching and the illegal trade in elephants pose significant challenges to the species. Climate change is expected to exacerbate current threats facing Asian elephants.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) mission is to work with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The International Affairs Program delivers on this mission through its financial assistance programs by supporting strategic projects that deliver measurable conservation results for priority species and their habitats around the world.

Goals and Priorities

• Support of protected area and habitat restoration and management in Asian elephant ranges;
• Promote coexistence by minimizing the negative impacts of humans on Asian elephants and their habitats, address the root causes of human-elephant conflict, and develop solutions to minimize such conflict;
• Engage with local communities to gain their participation in biodiversity conservation and land-use planning, and provide sustainable and alternative livelihoods;
• Ensure effective protections across the species’ range to prevent illegal killing of Asian elephants and the illegal trade in live Asian elephants, ivory and its derivatives, and other elephant body parts;
• Enhance cooperation between the 13 range states to promote transboundary conservation of Asian elephants;
• Develop and execute elephant conservation management plans;
• Compliance with CITES and other applicable treaties and laws that prohibit or regulate the taking or trade of elephants or regulate the use and management of elephant habitat;
• Improve habitat connectivity by establishing wildlife corridors and minimizing the impacts from linear infrastructure; and
• Applied research on elephant populations and their habitats, including surveys and monitoring.

Funding Information

• Estimated Total Funding: $7,000,000
• Expected Maximum Award: $750,000
• Minimum Award: $300,000
• Expected Award Funding: $500,000
• Expected Number of Awards: It is anticipated that 10 to 25 awards will be issued this fiscal year.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Applicants
  • Applicants can be individuals; multi-national secretariats; foreign national and local government agencies; non-profit, non-governmental organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; U.S. territorial governments.

Guidelines for Proposed Projects

• Projects should focus on wild, rather than captive, populations of Asian elephants and occur within the range of the Asian elephant. If work is to be conducted outside of the range, the proposal should show a clear relevance to wild Asian elephant conservation.
• Project activities that emphasize data collection and status assessment should describe a direct link to management actions and include an explanation on how the lack of information has been a key limiting factor for management actions in the past.
• Applicants should clearly indicate how data generated by proposed activities will be made available to the Asian elephant conservation community.
• Applied research projects should address specific management needs and actions.
• Projects that propose prevention of damage from HEC must show that the intervention is known to be functionally effective, ethically and culturally appropriate, feasible, and perceived as effective, and the relevant stakeholders are aware of the limitations.
• Proposals should identify specific conservation actions that have a high likelihood of creating lasting benefits.
• Proposals that do not identify how actions will reduce threats or that do not demonstrate a strong link between data collection and management action will be rejected.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.