Rainforest Trust, an Amphibian Survival Alliance Partner, works with local conservation organizations across the tropics to create new protected areas. At the World Conservation Congress in 2016, Rainforest Trust launched the SAVES Challenge, our commitment to direct $100 million toward creating new protected areas to save the world’s most threatened species. Through the SAVES Challenge, Rainforest Trust has the capacity to match, dollar for dollar, projects that target the establishment of protected areas for priority Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs).  As a member of the KBA Partnership, Rainforest Trust has committed to identifying, mapping, monitoring and protecting the most important places for life on Earth. As an organization, we are especially focused on projects in KBAs with globally significant populations of Critically Endangered (CR) and Endangered (EN) species. To this end, Rainforest Trust wishes to explore partnerships with local conservation organizations interested in establishing new protected areas in places that have either been formally recognized as KBAs or would trigger a new KBA on further evaluation. For more information on KBAs, visit ​www.keybiodiversityareas.org​.

Proposal Requirements:

  • The project must be based within the tropics or subtropics.
  • The site must qualify as a KBA under criterion A1(a) (site regularly holds a globally significant proportion of the population of a Critically Endangered or Endangered species (1​).
  • The site must currently be unprotected and not designated as a protected area.
  • The project must be implemented by an organization nationally registered and legally authorized to work in the project country.

In addition, Rainforest Trust supports feasibility studies to assess the potential to create protected areas.  Rapid Protected Area Feasibility Awards:

  • Assess whether a site qualifies as an A1(a) KBA;
  • Evaluate land tenure of unprotected A1(a) KBAs;
  • Evaluate the presence and abundance of CR and EN species within unprotected A1(a) KBAs;
  • Gauge opportunities to designate governmental protected areas or to purchase privately-owned land;
  • Assess community and government interest in protected area creation; and
  • Identify next steps in proceeding with protected area creation.

Additional information regarding the SAVES Challenge, project requirements and an eligibility questionnaire  can be found at ​www.RainforestTrust.org/SAVES-Conservation​. Rainforest Trust’s next deadline is 1​st November 2018, we encourage interested applicants to start the online process as soon as possible and draft applications should be submitted on or before 1​st ​October. ​Those interested in exploring opportunities to leverage this support should contact ​[email protected].

(1) See ​https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46259​, page 16