Small Grants for Protection and Conservation of Ecosystems

The Van Tienhoven Foundation for International Nature Protection has launched the Small Grants for the protection and conservation of threatened species and ecosystems across the globe.

Foundation Mission & Vision

They are concerned about life on earth, the well-being and maintenance of the variety of living organisms and their living environment. Human beings play a crucial role as actor and factor in biodiversity. They see people as instrumental in mitigating the pressures of global change on the living environment and biodiversity.

• They make small grants available to finance direct actions on species, ecosystem, and community managed nature protection that led to change in policy and practice.
• They promote knowledge into the causes of threats and pressures on nature, in order to generate concrete actions that halt, counteract or mitigate these causes;
• They strive to influence and collaborate with governmental, non-governmental organisations, communities, individuals, and other relevant stakeholders for the sake of the conservation of nature.

Eligible Projects

The Van Tienhoven Foundation uses the following assessment criteria and prioritizes projects that:

• Focus on threatened species and ecosystems and/or key biodiversity areas.
• Aim to counter the human-induced causes for these threats, in order to have maximum conservation impact.
• Are practical, hands-on and directly applicable in order to generate change.
• Are initiated, owned or widely supported by local stakeholders, in order to ensure sustainability.
• Are exemplary for a wider problem, serve as a catalyst for raising awareness and engaging other stakeholders.
• Create leverage and can demonstrate that small grants and individual efforts can make a difference.

• From not-for-profit organisations, that are registered as legal bodies (NGOs and scientific institutions). They don’t accept applications from government bodies, private companies or individuals.
• Not-for-profit organisations must have a bank account in their organisations name, and able to receive international funds.
• Only one application per organisation will be taken into consideration for each call for proposals. If an organisation has been given a grant before, a final report must have been submitted for any project previously supported by the Van Tienhoven Foundation. An organisation can be supported for a maximum of three times within eight years.
• From organisations with a track record in species protection, ecosystem protection and/or community managed nature protection, that can be demonstrated by background documentation (e.g. websites, social media, annual and/or final project delivery reports).
• Where actions are not part of a study leading to any academic title and/or aimed at delivering a book.