HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, June 25: The Habitats Trust, a not-for-profit organisation working towards the protection and conservation of India’s natural habitats and their indigenous species, is inviting applications to financially support organisations and individuals doing seminal work towards protecting and conserving India’s threatened wildlife and natural habitats. The Habitats Trust Grants, with a total prize purse of Rs 3.2 crore, will be given in three categories to secure India’s rich biodiversity. The application portal for the Grants will remain open from June 23 to August 5 next.
Rushikesh Chavan, head of The Habitats Trust said, “The need to conserve biodiversity is pressing as India stares at an unprecedented crisis when it comes to mitigating the biggest challenges that humanity faces. According to a 2021 report by the Centre for Science and Environment, our country has lost over 90% of the area under its four biodiversity hotspots and 25 species from these have already become extinct. The Habitats Trust Grants is an effort to mobilise and scale on-ground efforts by passionate conservationists to help secure and restore our rich biodiversity.”
Further, The Habitats Trust Conservation Grant will support organisations working towards the conservation of lesser-known species and critical habitats. It will assist the grantees in addressing critical conservation challenges of India including but not limited to habitat degradation and destruction, loss of biodiversity, conservation of endangered species, and solutions for human-wildlife conflict. This grant is only open to organisations that have a proven record of working in wildlife conservation for a minimum of five years. The selected projects will have to be executed over three years. This is aimed at allowing sufficient time for the winners to make the most of the Grant and create a deeper impact on the ground.
Notably, applications for the grants will be evaluated through a multi-level screening process by a panel of experts from the field of conservation including scientists and subject-matter experts. These experts, who are also the sub-jury, will screen and shortlist 30 applicants across the two categories and will further assess these shortlisted projects through a field evaluation round. 20 applications overall will move to the final Jury Round. The five recipients of The Habitats Trust Grants 2022 will be announced by an eminent jury towards the end of this year. Applications will be measured on relevance, expected conservation impact, stakeholder engagement, scalability, replicability, and sustainability of the proposed project.
