Story | 24 11 月, 2016

IUCN Oceania and SGEA grantees sign agreement

Three Fiji grantees formally signed their grant agreements with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Friday 18 November as part of the 2016 Small Grants Enterprise & Community Development Accelerator (SGEA).

The SGEA is a component of the Energy, Ecosystems, and Sustainable Livelihoods Initiative (EESLI), which is supported in a multilateral effort by Spain, Italy, Austria and Luxembourg to fulfil EESLI’s agreed objective to help accelerate the transition within participating Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to energy systems that are ecologically efficient, sustainable, and socially equitable through thematic areas of biodiversity & ecosystem services which enhance livelihoods across various dimensions.

IUCN Oceania Regional Director, Taholo Kami, welcomed the signing, saying the small grants will hopefully initiate something bigger for this year’s grantees, as well as other communities in the future.

“I’m glad that you (grantees) have decided to step up and get into partnership with IUCN and make things happen and we look forward to things evolving. The reality is that these impacts could be quite spectacular.”

IUCN is hosting the SGEA facility for sustainable enterprise and community development projects to ensure lasting value and social equity in development of livelihoods around the region. It should serve as an opportunity to extend examples of best practices in biodiversity conservation, renewable energy, and energy efficiency to small businesses and community-level beneficiaries. The opportunity exists to achieve measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through considered, planned resource management.

In regards to the selection of the grantees, Energy Programme Officer, Andrew Irvin said, “We received over 20 proposals from around the region. There were many inspired and well-drafted concepts,” he continued, “however, we looked closely for those demonstrating the opportunity for quantifiable action toward fossil fuel reductions, independent energy generation, and conservation that may yield positive biodiversity outcomes.”

Participants this year include; Eco Silver Bed & Breakfast (Fiji), Gender Climate Change Alliance (Fiji), PNG Women in Agriculture (Papua New Guinea), Teta Tours (Tonga), and Uto ni Yalo Trust (Fiji). The potential contributions and risk factors for each project’s contributions toward environmental & social conservation were measured through the Environmental & Social Management System (ESMS)[1].  This occurred following selection of each participant for their direct inclusion of energy systems at the core of their projects, in line with the EESLI objective

Countries eligible for the EESLI Small Grants include; Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Another call to the region for proposals will be issued in 2017 for businesses and organizations looking to increase independence from fossil fuel and rapidly mainstream best practices for resource management and conservation. Any further inquiries may be directed by email to: smallgrantsoceania@iucn.org, or by phone to 679-331-9084.