The Waterloo Foundation is accepting applications for its Tropical Rainforests Programme to support projects protecting tropical rain forest, principally through avoided deforestation.
The world has approximately 4 billion hectares of forest, representing almost 30% of the Earth’s landmass, with roughly 56 percent of these forests lying in tropical and subtropical areas. More than 1 billion people rely heavily on forests for their livelihoods, and they are the most biologically-diverse ecosystems on land, home to more than half of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. Forests also play a vital role in global climate regulation through the sequestration and storage of carbon.
But despite increased awareness of their importance, forests are experiencing escalating impact from human activities. In recent years they have lost over 3.5 million hectares of primary forest annually, and yet more forests are becoming degraded or fragmented. It has been calculated that the deforestation of tropical forests is responsible for about 20 percent of current global carbon emissions, making it a major contributor to climate change.
What they will support?
Under the Tropical Rainforests programme, preference will be given to initiatives working to protect tropical rainforests for their value to the climate, communities and biodiversity, principally through avoided deforestation. They will consider both practical local projects, and strategic initiatives.
Funding Information
They will consider providing one off and multi-annual grants (usually for up to five years). The majority of the grants in this programme will be for a total of £50,000 – £100,000 spread over multiple years. They often contribute to programmes co-funded by other grant-giving organisations, and look favourably on applications with match funding already secured.
Project Types
Local projects
Applications for practical local projects that they will consider would typically be working on a specified tropical rainforest area, defined in hectares. They will generally only accept applications for the protection of areas larger than 10,000 hectares. Applicants will need to demonstrate how their project involves:
Exposing, addressing and overcoming the local drivers of deforestation
Management of the specified area
Methods to measure and monitor the protected area
Sustainable livelihoods for forest-dependent communities
Securing land rights or management rights for forest-dependent communities
Strategic projects
They will consider applications for strategic projects that are working on addressing the drivers of deforestation on a wider or international scale. These could include:
Working on international or regional forest policy
Campaigning for improved practices in commerce
Innovative ways of reducing deforestation e.g. financial systems or solutions based on the value of forest ecosystem services
Strategic project applicants will have to provide the following information:
Evidence of previous successful strategic programmes e.g. an attributable change in policy or improved supply chain. They may ask to see a full copy of the supporting data and evaluation at a later stage;
For your proposed programme, the specific measurable outcomes that you expect the programme to achieve, and the methods you will use to monitor these outcomes;
The strategy put in place to ensure the sustainability of the programme’s objectives for the long term.
Ineligible Funding
They are not able to offer funding for:
Tree planting projects
Projects focused solely on the use of fuel-efficient stoves
Projects with animal conservation as the sole focus
Research projects
Projects focusing on environmental education
They are currently not accepting proposals for REDD and carbon finance projects
Projects based in countries that are not secure and politically stable. They are therefore unlikely to support projects in conflict-affected areas such as within DRC and CAR.
In addition, they only consider proposals from US-based organisations under exceptional circumstances, due to the higher availability of environmental funding in the US compared to the UK.
