F24AS00160 - Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Fund

and freshwater turtles, more than half face the threat of extinction. Habitat loss and the legal and illegal trade of turtles and turtle products (for food, pets, and traditional medicines, etc.) continue to drive sharp declines in turtle populations globally. Recognizing the ecological value and alarming declines of turtles worldwide, the U.S. Congress established a conservation fund for tortoises and freshwater turtles (through the John Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, 2019, Public Law 116-9*), signed into law on March 12, 2019. The Service’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Conservation Fund is soliciting proposals that conserve threatened tortoise and freshwater turtle species that occur in foreign countries and in territories of the United States.  Proposed work must occur outside of the 50 U.S. states or must demonstrate substantive conservation benefits to populations outside of the 50 U.S. states. The primary purpose of this new conservation fund is to provide financial support for projects that conserve populations and habitats of freshwater turtles and tortoises and address threats to their survival. The United States, second only to Asia in diversity of turtle species, has acted in recent decades as a steward of chelonian conservation, and this fund allows the Service to expand efforts to protect imperiled turtle species around the world.   Proposed work must occur outside of the 50 U.S. states or must demonstrate substantive conservation benefits to populations outside of the 50 U.S. states. The primary purpose of this new conservation fund is to provide financial support for projects that conserve populations and habitats of freshwater turtles and tortoises and address threats to their survival. The United States, second only to Asia in diversity of turtle species, has acted in recent decades as a steward of chelonian conservation, and this fund allows the Service to expand efforts to protect imperiled turtle species around the world.  The goal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle (TFT) Conservation Program is to recover and maintain viable populations of tortoise and freshwater turtles in the wild by addressing the critical threats to their survival. We do this through financial and technical assistance to support evidence-based interventions and regular evaluations that inform our tortoise and freshwater turtle conservation strategy and carry out the purpose of the Marine Turtle Conservation Act (MTCA).  Our strategy encompasses the following key objectives: Species Protection: Conserving TFTs in their habitats through focused, measurable actions that involve collaborating with essential stakeholders to reduce threats such as exploitation, harmful fishing practices and predation.Habitat Protection: Minimizing habitat loss, encroachment, and degradation by working closely with communities and land stewards to implement effective habitat protection and restoration techniques, with a special focus on nesting and foraging habitats in or around conservation areas. Combating Exploitation: Supporting community-led initiatives to reduce poaching through the development of alternative livelihoods, co-designed with local stakeholders, and behavior change campaigns grounded in social science concepts.    Legal Protections and Law Enforcement: Collaborating with government and regional authorities to enhance legal protections for TFTs by building intelligence information exchanges and bolstering law enforcement capacity. Demand Reduction: Facilitating behavior change outreach programs, informed by social science concepts, to curtail the demand for TFTs.   Competitive projects will work to support the Service's key objectives and bolster long-term conservation capacity for TFTs. We broadly define capacity to include: 1) the capacity of habitat to sustain TFT populations through threat reduction and habitat restoration activities and 2) the capacity of individuals and institutions at local and national levels to champion the conservation of TFTs in those countries and regions. We prioritize the following actions to bolster long-term TFT conservation capacity within the broader Service program goal:Cultivate enduring conservation capacity among local and indigenous communities, local and national non-governmental organizations, government bodies, and other pertinent stakeholders.Support the growth of local conservation initiatives that promotes opportunities to build skills and develop networks of local multidisciplinary practitioners relevant to TFT conservation. Facilitate information sharing between communities, turtle networks, government and regional authorities; and institutions on effective techniques to reduce the threats to TFTs in their habitats.  Identify and address gaps in TFT conservation through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach.Develop and implement community-led action plans with direct conservation impacts that promote sustained threat reduction and consistent monitoring (habitat or species) to identify and alert relevant entities for more urgent or expanded attention if increased threats are identified. Provide clear evidence of how the proposed activities will yield lasting, significant benefits for the species in focus. Proposals should demonstrate how project activities directly address one or more of the key objectives and actions and include a plan for monitoring and evaluation (i.e., measuring indicators). For this Notice of Funding Opportunity, while all projects that work to implement one or more of the overall Service program goals are eligible for funding, TFTs as listed in the table below or threat reduction activities focused in the geographic area of South Asia and Southeast Asia will be prioritized. Table 1: Taxonomic list by family of non-U.S. terrestrial tortoises and freshwater turtles with high extinction risk and most urgent conservation needs.FamilyTaxonCommon NameChelidaeChelodina mccordi mccordi and Chelodina mccordi timorensisRoti Island Snake-necked Turtle and Timor Snake-necked Turtle   GeoemydidaeBatagur affinis, Batagur baska, Batagur borneoensis, Batagur dhongoka, Batagur kachuga and Batagur trivittataSouthern River Terrapin, Northern River Terrapin, Painted Terrapin, Three-striped Roofed Turtle, Red-crowned Roof Turtle and Myanmar Roofed Turtle Cuora amboinensis, Cuora bourreti, Cuora cyclornata, Cuora galbinifrons, Cuora mouhotii and Cuora picturataSoutheast Asian Box Turtle, Bourret's Box Turtle, Vietnamese Three-striped Box Turtle, Indochinese Box Turtle, Keeled Box Turtle and Southern Vietnam Box Turtle Cyclemys atripons, Cyclemys oldhamii, Cyclemys pulchristriataWestern Black-bridged Leaf Turtle, Southeast Asian Leaf Turtle and Eastern Black-bridged Leaf Turtle Geoclemys hamiltoniiSpotted Pond Turtle Geoemyda spengleriBlack-breasted Leaf Turtle Hardella thurjiiCrowned River Turtle Heosemys annandalii, Heosemys depressa, Heosemys grandis and Heosemys spinosaYellow-headed Temple Turtle, Arakan Forest Turtle, Giant Asian Pond Turtle and Spiny Turtle Leucocephalon yuwonoiSulawesi Forest Turtle Mauremys annamensis and Mauremys muticaVietnamese Pond Turtle and Yellow Pond Turtle Melanochelys tricarinataTricarinate Hill Turtle Morenia ocellata and Morenia petersiBurmese Eyed Turtle and Indian Eyed Turtle Orlitia borneensisMalaysian Giant Turtle Pangshura sylhetensisAssam Roofed Turtle Sacalia bealei and Sacalia quadriocellataBeale’s Eyed Turtle and Four-eyed Turtle Siebenrockiella crassicollis and Siebenrockiella leytensisBlack Marsh Turtle and Palawan Forest Turtle Vijayachelys silvaticaCochin Forest Cane Turtle   PlatysternidaePlatysternon megacephalumBig-headed Turtle   TestudinidaeGeochelone platynotaBurmese Star Tortoise Indotestudo elongata, Indotestudo forstenii and Indotestudo travancoricaElongated Tortoise, Sulawesi Tortoise and Travancore Tortoise Manouria emys and Manouria impressaAsian Giant Tortoise and Impressed Tortoise   TrionychidaeChitra chitra, Chitra indica and Chitra vandijkiSoutheast Asian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle, South Asian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle and Myanmar Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle Nilssonia formosa, Nilssonia gangetica, Nilssonia hurum, Nilssonia leithii and Nilssonia nigricansMyanmar Peacock Softshell Turtle, Indian Softshell Turtle, and Indian Peacock Softshell Turtle, Leith’s Softshell Turtle and Black Softshell Turtle Palea steindachneri, Pelochelys cantorii and Rafetus swinhoeiWattle-necked Softshell Turtle, Asian Giant Softshell Turtle and Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle