The Philippines is one of 17 mega-biodiverse countries of the world which, collectively, contain two-thirds of the earth’s biodiversity and between 70% and 80% of the world’s plant and animal species. However, the country’s rich biodiversity faces significant threats, even ranking among the top ten countries in the world in terms of species threatened with extinction.1 Forests have played a key role in the economic history of the Philippines. Until the 1980s, forests provided a consistent revenue stream from timber sales for the government. Forests also provide ecosystem-related services such as generating water for electric power, agriculture, and household use; mitigating climate change impacts; and recreation. Collectively, these benefits enhance human well-being, and improve economic development. However, in 2022, the Philippines lost 62.9Kha of tree cover, equivalent to 38.8Mt of carbon dioxide emissions.2 Key threats to the Philippines’ biodiversity include habitat loss and conversion, unsustainable utilization of the country’s forests and fishery resources, poaching and illegal trade of wildlife, overfishing, and pollution.
The Activity will conserve biodiversity and advance climate adaptation and mitigation at the national and subnational levels. To enable the sustainability of activity outcomes and capture the diversity of potential conservation and climate actions at different scales, this activity will support actions at three levels: (a) the national level to support policy development, institutional capacity and replication; (b) the sub-national level to support strategic programming and implementation of conservation actions at the provincial level; and, (c ) the sub-national level in selected geographies to demonstrate innovative conservation and climate actions in landscapes and seascapes.
The Activity is expected to work with national government agencies such as but not limited to, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Climate Change Commission (CCC), Department of Finance (DoF), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Justice (DoJ), in areas of developing policies, plans, incentive mechanisms, livelihood support, knowledge management, capacity building, implementing and monitoring national and sub-national level nature-based solutions.
Applicants may submit only one application but there is no limit to being included as a potential subrecipient on other applicants’ submissions. Interested applicants from within Duke should contact fundopps@duke.edu as early as possible.
Deadline: Aug. 16, 2024
Eligibility for this RFA is not restricted.
Subject to funding availability and at the discretion of the Agency, USAID intends to provide $40,000,000 to $46,000,000.00 in total USAID funding over a five-year period.