NEWS

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED FROM OUR LAUNCH EVENT

HOW DO YOU ENSURE COMPANIES DON’T USE FCF TO GREENWASH?

Corporate donors and grantees who are private individuals or companies must have No Deforestation policies and not be engaged in land-grabbing or deforestation. We do our own due diligence check using publically-available information and our bank also does its own checks regarding corruption etc., but we appreciate any additional information stakeholders can provide – please do not hesitate to contact us at info (at) earthworm.org.

IF A COMPANY IS OPERATING ON ANCESTRAL COMMUNITY LANDS, IS THIS PART OF THE PROCESS OF INITIATIVES SORTED TO HELP COMMUNITIES SECURE THEIR RIGHTS? OR DO YOU ONLY SUPPORT WORK ON LAND WHERE TENURE IS SECURE AND CLEAR?

Normally the Grantee must have legal use or management rights over the conservation area. However, if a community is still finalizing the process of gaining legal tenure – for instance if it has been recognized at the village level but not yet at the district or federal level – they can be approved and use FCF funding for legal and registration fees.

For companies operating on community lands (even if these are not recognized as such by the government), the rights of the communities to their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent about how their lands are used must be respected. Any land tenure conflicts must be making progress towards resolution. For more details please see sections 1.2 and 1.6 of our Project Eligibility Criteria.

 ARE PROJECTS AUTOMATICALLY FUNDED ONCE THEY’RE APPROVED BY THE GRANTS COMMITTEE?

Not necessarily. We are building up our grantee portfolio at the same time as we seek donors, but the interests and needs might not always exactly match. We encourage you to contact us before starting the application process so that we can start to identify potential funders.

ARE INTERNATIONAL NGOS ELIGIBLE TO ACCESS FUNDS THROUGH FCF? OR DO YOU PROVIDE SUPPORT TO LOCALLY-REGISTERED NGOS ONLY?

The Grantee must be a legally-registered organization or an individual residing in the country where they are protecting forest. They can be part of an international organization, as long as they have an office in the country.

WHAT OTHER PLATFORMS / NETWORKS WILL YOU COLLABORATE WITH FOR SCALE?

The FCF will not be directly implementing any conservation projects, so we absolutely rely on partnerships to have the maximum impact. We are aiming to ‘uberize’ conservation by supporting hundreds of local field organisations. Many of them will be nascent organisations supported by more established NGOs, who can even act as fiscal sponsors as the groups build up their organizational capacity. We are therefore keen to build relationships with NGOs who are working with communities to conserve their forests, to direct funding their way.

For funding partnerships, corporate donors would have to meet our due diligence requirements regarding No Deforestation and respect for land rights as outlined in our Project Eligibility Criteria.

WHAT GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS WILL BE NEEDED FOR EFFECTIVE (AND EFFICIENT) ADOPTION BY COMMUNITIES?

Conservation projects generally don’t work unless they have the support of local communities. Communities that support and benefit from the conservation projects can become a second set of forest guards – highlighting the presence of poachers and illegal loggers, for instance. In a good conservation project, forest communities thrive alongside wildlife. Where communities don’t support the conservation project, encroachment into the forest and illegal activities can run rampant.

The most direct way that communities can be involved in the governance of conservation projects is for them to lead the projects themselves, as stewards of their own forests. The FCF aims to work with new conservation projects, where communities may have just gotten legal tenure and where their forest management structures are quite new. In these cases, communities will likely need support from specialized NGOs to build their capacity to manage funds and undertake conservation activities. FCF will support them to use the SMART Conservation Tool and other accessible impact monitoring tools.

Where communities aren’t directly managing the project, the FCF requires the project manager to undertake a social background study to better understand local peoples’ needs and aspirations, and to involve communities in conservation activities. This could take the form of hiring local people as wardens, investing in forest-friendly livelihoods to reduce pressure on forests, community education activities, etc.

HOW DO YOU PLAN ON SUPPORTING PROJECTS TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON DONOR FUNDING -- I.E. DEVELOP AN “EXIT STRATEGY”?

Protected areas need long-term funding – it is rare that sustainable business activities like eco-tourism or non-timber forest products can support all of the conservation costs. FCF will not require projects to ‘graduate’ from our support. However, we will support grantees to diversify their income sources, and plan to set up a knowledge-sharing platform where we can deposit information about how to access carbon markets, set up sustainable forest product businesses, etc.

ARE PROJECTS ALLOWED OTHER SOURCES OF FUNDING?

Yes! This is encouraged, as income diversification is a source of project health.

IS THIS FUND ONLY FOR TROPICAL FORESTS?

Not explicitly, but our maximum contribution per hectare ($32 net to the project per hectare per year) means that it is likely that we will only work in tropical forests because conservation costs in temperate countries are likely higher.

IN MANY COUNTRIES THE ONLY CONSERVATION AREAS ALLOWED ARE OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT – HOW WILL YOU ADJUST YOUR MODEL TO FIT WITH THIS?

Although we know that state-run protected areas desperately need funding – 50-80% of them are underfunded – for now we aren’t set up to allow government organizations to be FCF grantees. We also will be working with forests that have gained their conservation status within the past five years, so most public protected areas are anyway ineligible. However, State-managed areas which gained their protected area status within the past five years, for instance a newly-declared protected area, or an upgrading from a production forest reserve to a protection forest reserve, would be eligible if they are working with a non-State actor on co-management of the area. The organization with the co-management agreement would be the FCF Grantee.

ARE THE PROJECTS FUNDED ONLY LOCATED IN THE SOURCING AREA OF THE DONORS?

Donors will pick the projects that make sense for them. We assume that they will prefer projects directly in their sourcing landscapes, but if there are supply chain links with other projects (for instance through supplier groups who have operations in multiple landscapes) then that could be a good option, especially if their direct supply landscapes do not have much forest left to protect.

IS THE FCF GRANTEE ALLOWED TO CERTIFIED THEIR AREA FOR CARBON CREDIT?

We do not put restrictions on other sources of funding for the conservation projects we support; indeed carbon credits could be a good option to diversify sources of income.

HOW MUCH FUNDING CAN A PROJECT RECEIVE?

Projects present a total budget for all of their conservation activities in the area being proposed for FCF support. They also show what other funding they already have. FCF can fund up to $32 per hectare per year, but usually the amount the project needs is much less than that. 

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PROJECT AREAS IN TERMS OF SIZE, TENURE, AND TYPE OF LAND COVER?

The full details are available Project Eligibility Criteria, but in summary, the conservation area must:

·       Be natural forest (very few non-native species – no more than 15% of basal area)

·       At least 500 contiguous hectares in size, and

·       Have tenure which allows conservation for at least the next 20 years

·       Have achieved its conservation status granted in the last 5 years

 WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRANTEES?

The full details are available Project Eligibility Criteria, but in summary, the organizations we fund must:

·       Be a legally-registered community-based organisation, private company, private individual, NGO, research institution, university, or religious entity.

·       Own the land or have legal use or management rights

·       Have adequate human and financial resources to ensure protection of the area and active involvement of the surrounding community in conservation activities

·       Have a policy that they will not deforest any natural forest areas

·       Demonstrate a basic understanding of risks to the project

WHAT TYPES OF ACTIVITIES DO YOU FUND?

FCF funds can be used for the following activities:

•       Management and monitoring of the site, including for biodiversity (SMART or equivalent) and social impact

•       Land taxes, licenses, or permits for the conservation area

•       Human resources and overheads related to conservation

•       Restoration with naturally occurring local forest species

•       Re-introduction of native fauna

•       Development of income-generation activities within the site (must comply with box on right)

•       Development of income-generation activities with local communities off-site (must be part of a plan to gain support from communities for conservation)

•       Legal support to finalize conservation-based tenure

WHAT ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES CAN OCCUR INSIDE THE CONSERVATION AREA?

Commercial and subsistence activities which do not harm the long-term integrity of the forest are allowed. This includes, for species which are not rare, threatened, or endangered species: sustainable collection of non-timber forest products, sustainable fishing, subsistence logging, and subsistence hunting. It also includes low-impact tourism.

 The following activities are not allowed inside conservation areas supported by the FCF:

•       Commercial logging or hunting

•       Hunting, fishing, or harvesting of rare or threatened species

•       Planting of non-native species

•       Cultivation of non-native species (except when already planted and <15% of area)