Funding Opportunities
It is great to see a steadily increasing flow of inquiries and donations coming in from individuals, institutions and corporate sponsors. We are also very grateful for the donations from people and groups who were motivated to fundraise and create public awareness of the Amphibian Ark during 2008 Year of the Frog. However, many more funds are required to carry out vital amphibian conservation work.
Funding available for amphibian projects
Oceanário de Lisboa in Portugal financially supports in situ conservation projects lead by other institutions (Universities or research institutes – http://www.oceanario.pt/cms/1470 ) Their preference is to support projects based in Portugal that need financial support (normally 10.000€ a year). Contact Nuria Baylina, Curator, for additional information.
Caudata.org is an online community of caudate enthusiasts to promote learning and accurate information exchange about this taxon. The Caudata.org grant is an annual award utilizing funds raised by the group to support conservation of caudates. More information is available here.
Amphibian Ark’s $5,000 competitive seed grant is designed to fund small start-up projects that are in need of seed money in order to build successful long-term programs that attract larger funding. Full details of the Seed Grant program are available here.
The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund provides targeted $5,000-25,000 grants to individual species conservation initiatives and they have expressed an interest in seeing amphibian proposals.
Columbus Zoo continuously accepts applications for grants and emergency grants and has a strong record of supporting amphibian conservation work. For more information, contact Rebecca Rose, Field Conservation Coordinator.
The Amphibian Specialist Group calls for proposals for up to $30,000 matching funds for critical habitat protection; no deadline.
Emergency funds are also available through Rapid Response Facility, Memphis Zoo and Disney’s Worldwide Conservation Fund.
Other grant opportunities are described in Appendix 3 of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Amphibian Resource Manual.
Funding required for specific amphibian projects
Species rescues in eastern Panama
Although there are lots of places in the world that are still chytrid negative and will likely suffer losses, there is only one where we know when it will arrive and what impact it will have. Amphibian chytrid has jumped the canal and is heading into eastern Panama. All expectations are that it will do there what it did to the west, ripping through the mountains and eliminating 80% of individuals and 50% of species. Despite the fact that we knew this was coming and have been calling for action east of the canal for years, there is still zero capacity in place to save anything. Thankfully, Bd seems to only move at ~30km/year, and eastern Panama is maybe 300km long, so in theory it will be ten years before the last of the species disappear (unless Bd also comes up from Colombia – very possible).
But, the latest samples are already a year old (-30 km). And species are not evenly distributed in the east, so some will go extinct much sooner. There is no more time to delay, we need our partners to invest resources in eastern Panama now. The Houston Zoo has put together a proposal for the initial response and needs your support (Houston budget proposal).
Conservation action planning workshops
Amphibian conservation needs assessment workshops are planned for Bolivia, China, Caribbean, Ecuador, Honduras, Philippines, Tanzania and Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia over the coming months, and additional funding is sought to help cover participants’ air fares, and other costs associated with running these meetings. See the Conservation Needs Assessment Workshops page for more information about these workshops.
Ex situ conservation training workshops
For ex situ conservation training workshops in China, the Caribbean, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mesoamerica and Peru.
Workshops and facilities in Costa Rica.
Develop amphibian-specific educational posters and coloring books
AVZA (Venezuelan zoo association) seeks $2,000 to develop educational materials for school children.
Other partnership opportunities are available in our Frog MatchMaker database.
AArk officer support
The AArk has 3.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff members. Some of their salaries are covered by supporting institutions (thanks to CBSG and Chester, Philadelphia and Woodland Park Zoos). However, we would very much appreciate support for the rest, including:
- 100% of Program Director Kevin Zippel
- 100% of Taxon Officer Kevin Johnson
- 50% of Training Officer Ron Gagliardo
Want to be kept up to date with funding opportunities as they become available? Why not join our new Funding Opportunities mailing list!
