Call for Proposals: IUCN NL Land Acquisition Fund 2025 (Up To 100,000 Euro)

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The IUCN NL Land Acquisition Fund invites local conservation organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs) to submit their proposal for land acquisition to protect nature. The fund contributes to initiatives acquiring natural areas, creating reserves and connecting the habitat of endangered species. For 25 years, the Land Acquisition Fund has been enabling the protection of important ecosystems around the globe through land purchase, long-term land leasing and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs).

Funding Information

The maximum financial assistance provided by LAF is 100,000 euro. Co-funding of projects is possible when the impact of the IUCN NL grant is clearly visible and constitutes a substantial part of the overall budget, or when the IUCN NL grant can trigger other donors to contribute.

Eligibility Criteria for Land Acquisition Fund

The general objective of the proposed project must be in line with the objective of the Land Acquisition Fund: providing funds to local NGOs and CSOs to acquire threatened nature, create reserves and connect habitats for endangered species.

Furthermore, potentially successful proposals from NGOs or CSOs have:

experience and capacity concerning the effective management of a conservation area,
and experience and capacity in the field of project management and financial management and control.
The Land Acquisition Fund cannot grant financial assistance to:
- individuals,
- commercial (for profit) organisations,
- governmental institutions, and
- projects/ organisations with a primary focus on sustainable agricultural systems or to education, rescue, or rehabilitation centres.
Geographical range: Local conservation NGOs, CSOs working in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific are eligible for this program and are invited to submit their proposals

Project Area

High priority will be given to land acquisition (through purchase or lease) or implementation of OECMs to:
secure areas hosting species listed as threatened (CR, EN or VU) on the IUCN Red List [www.iucnredlist.org];
Secure areas with a high biodiversity value, like Key Biodiversity Areas;
Secure areas that are important in a broad approach for securing the connectivity in a high biodiversity value landscape (corridors, stepping stones) or to secure ecosystem services;
Secure ecosystems underrepresented in the public protected areas system;
Secure important populations of threatened plants and trees. Such proposals should preferably target protection of range-restricted tree species, an Alliance for Zero Extinction site or a unique part of the range of a species.

How To Apply for Land Acquisition Fund

All NGOs must submit a pre-proposal first. A format for pre-proposals can be found in Appendix 2 of this document. Only pre-proposals prepared according to this format, and not exceeding 4 pages, will be considered. The working language of the programme is English.
Pre-proposals can be submitted in English and Spanish, in a free Word format (.docx) and must be sent to landacquisitionfund@iucn.nl . Questions about the procedure and content of proposals can be sent to the coordinator of the LAF (hoogeslag@iucn.nl).

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Application Deadline: 1st of May, 2025