Combatting Wildlife Trafficking | F17AS00027

Opportunity Information: Apply for F17AS00027

The Combatting Wildlife Trafficking grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number F17AS00027) is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) funding program designed to support practical, on-the-ground and policy-relevant work that reduces illegal wildlife trade. The program is rooted in the U.S. government-wide push launched under Executive Order 13648 (2013) and the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking Implementation Plan (released February 11, 2015). USFWS is seeking proposals that help carry out that Implementation Plan by funding projects that prevent poaching and illegal take, disrupt trafficking and smuggling networks, and reduce the illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. For this competition, "wildlife trafficking" is defined broadly to include the illegal taking of protected or managed species and the illegal trade in wildlife, parts, and products. The term "wildlife" is also broad here and explicitly includes terrestrial and aquatic animal species as well as plant species involved in illegal trade.

Funding is offered through grants and cooperative agreements, meaning applicants should be prepared for either a standard assistance award or a more collaborative arrangement where USFWS may have substantial involvement in the project. The opportunity is listed as discretionary funding under CFDA 15.679, with activity areas tied to environment, natural resources, and community development. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the full notice. The listed award ceiling is $100,000, and USFWS anticipated making about 20 awards under this announcement. The original posting date was November 23, 2016, with an original closing date of February 5, 2017.

While proposals may address any of the objectives in the National Strategy Implementation Plan, USFWS states that priority will be given to projects aligned with five highlighted focus areas. The first priority area is strengthening implementation of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). CITES is the main global treaty framework governing international wildlife trade, aiming to ensure trade is legal, sustainable, and traceable so that species do not become endangered or extinct due to commerce. USFWS is especially interested in capacity-building work that helps key countries and regions implement CITES more effectively, because weaknesses in permitting, enforcement, and scientific findings in any major trade hub can undermine the system as a whole. The notice specifically points to Central America and the Caribbean, and also Oceania with emphasis on the Pacific Islands, including efforts that help wildlife-trading non-Parties join the Convention. USFWS also flags that decisions made at the 17th CITES Conference of the Parties in October 2016 created new commitments and action items that require technical and financial support, and the program intends to back those outcomes that are highest priority to the U.S. government while also advancing the National Strategy.

The second priority area centers on good governance and anti-corruption as a necessary foundation for effective wildlife law enforcement. The notice frames corruption as one of the biggest barriers to stopping wildlife trafficking, affecting the entire chain from source (supply) countries, to transit routes, to end markets (demand countries). Projects in this category are expected to improve transparency, reduce opportunities for bribery and influence, and strengthen governance practices that make enforcement and prosecution more credible and effective. USFWS indicates openness to a range of approaches, including programs that confront corruption directly, pilot efforts intended for later scale-up, or anti-corruption components embedded within existing conservation and enforcement initiatives.

The third priority area is the "Africa/Asia nexus," reflecting the reality that many major trafficking networks move high-value products from Africa to Asian markets. USFWS notes that substantial investments have already been made to build capacity within individual countries, but that these efforts have not always created the sustained cross-border relationships and information-sharing mechanisms needed to dismantle transnational criminal networks. The program therefore seeks projects that increase operational cooperation between African and Asian countries implicated in wildlife crime, improve intelligence and information exchange, and build durable working relationships among customs, police, wildlife enforcement agencies, and CITES authorities. The emphasis is on making interdiction, investigation, and prosecution more effective through coordinated action, especially in light of large seizures involving products such as elephant ivory and pangolin scales.

The fourth priority area focuses on social and behavior change communication as a tool to reduce wildlife trafficking by shifting human behavior at critical points in the supply chain. USFWS is looking for proposals grounded in a clear theory of change that explains who needs to change behavior, what barriers currently prevent change, how those barriers will be removed, and what alternative behaviors will be promoted. Importantly, the notice stresses that theories of change should be supported by data, either because the proposal already has evidence to justify the approach or because the project will conduct applied research to build an evidence-based theory of change. Because USFWS awards are constrained by time and budget, proposals are expected to show how the planned work fits into a broader program or how research and pilot activities will be used to test approaches that can later be scaled up or replicated.

The fifth priority area targets conservation action for critically endangered species threatened primarily by illegal trade, with eligibility tied to the IUCN Red List categories (Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable). Species listed as Data Deficient may be included if the applicant can credibly demonstrate that the conservation urgency is comparable, while species categorized as Extinct in the Wild are not eligible. USFWS also clarifies a key funding preference: priority will go to species that are not already covered under the Multinational Species Conservation Fund programs (which include Asian and African elephants, all rhino species, all tiger subspecies, great apes like gorillas and chimpanzees and bonobos, orangutans, all gibbon species, and all marine turtles). In other words, this funding stream is meant to help fill gaps for heavily trafficked, highly threatened species that may not have dedicated U.S. funding sources elsewhere. Projects in this category should be clearly designed to address the illegal trade threat as the primary driver of decline, rather than general conservation work unrelated to trafficking.

Taken together, the opportunity is aimed at practical interventions that either strengthen the global rules and systems governing wildlife trade (especially CITES), reduce corruption and improve governance so enforcement can function, connect enforcement and regulatory agencies across borders to disrupt transnational networks, change the human behaviors that sustain illegal trade, or directly conserve threatened species where illegal trade is the core threat. The consistent thread across all priorities is measurable progress toward reducing wildlife trafficking by improving the systems, incentives, enforcement coordination, and targeted conservation actions that make trafficking harder, riskier, and less profitable.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the community development, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Combatting Wildlife Trafficking" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.679.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 23, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 05, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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