F23AS00125 - Latin America Regional Program | F23AS00125

Opportunity Information: Apply for F23AS00125

F23AS00125, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Latin America Regional Program, is a discretionary grant opportunity under CFDA 15.640 focused on delivering measurable, on-the-ground biodiversity conservation results across priority landscapes in Latin America. Through its International Affairs Program, USFWS funds projects that conserve priority species, habitats, and ecological processes in one of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth. The program frames conservation in Latin America as directly tied not only to wildlife survival and ecosystem services, but also to regional stability, security, public health, and economic prosperity, including benefits that matter to the United States because many species are shared across borders and depend on Latin American habitats during key parts of their life cycles.

The program is seeking proposals that reduce threats to key wildlife and ecosystems while strengthening long-term local capacity to sustain conservation. Competitive projects are expected to be action-oriented and results-based, with clear threat-reduction logic rather than general research aims. USFWS emphasizes community-centered approaches that build rural stability and improve outcomes for both people and wildlife. Examples include conservation incentive agreements, stewardship or land-use plans, and alternative sustainable livelihood activities that create practical reasons for communities to conserve biodiversity. Another core focus is reducing the costs of living alongside wildlife by working with landowners and local stakeholders to prevent or mitigate human-wildlife conflict, since conflict-driven losses can trigger retaliatory killing, poaching, and trafficking.

All proposed work must align with at least one of three required thematic areas: (1) Sustainable Resource Use, (2) Wildlife Trafficking, and/or (3) Human-Wildlife Conflict. Within those themes, projects should implement conservation actions that measurably contribute to goals such as curtailing deforestation and habitat degradation drivers; strengthening management of protected areas, community forests, and Indigenous territories; fostering habitat restoration; promoting alternative livelihoods; addressing or reducing COVID-19-related setbacks to conservation; improving climate change adaptation and resilience; and mitigating direct threats to priority wildlife. Proposals that emphasize data collection or status assessments are only considered competitive if they clearly connect to management decisions and explain why missing information has been a real barrier to action in the past; proposals that do not show how activities will reduce threats, or that collect data without a credible management pathway, are subject to rejection.

Geographically, activities should occur in eligible Latin American locations, with limited allowance for U.S.-based work only if the applicant demonstrates a clear and direct conservation impact in Latin America. Eligible geographies include parts of Mexico, Central America, and South America, and the program states that priority will be given to projects in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In Mexico, focal areas and species include Northern Mexico (bison, California condor, Sonoran pronghorn, black-footed ferret, black-tailed prairie dog), the Pacific Southwest and Greater Lacandon system (jaguar), the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (monarch butterfly), Veracruz and Chiapas (scarlet macaw), and the Mayan Forest tropical rainforest. In Central America, eligible countries include Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. In South America, eligible regions include the Gran Chaco (eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina), Patagonia (southern Argentina and Chile), and the Andes-Amazon (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru).

Several important restrictions and compliance expectations shape what can be funded. Local government endorsement is required before an award is made, and applicants are strongly encouraged to consult relevant national or local authorities while developing the proposal to ensure alignment and feasibility. The program also excludes certain taxa because other USFWS funding programs cover them: it will not fund projects related to marine turtles, tortoises, and freshwater turtles (covered under the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund) or neotropical migratory birds (covered under the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Fund). Individuals are not eligible to apply, and the notice explicitly states that tuition for individuals, as well as field expenses tied to masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral research conducted in support of academic degrees, are not eligible costs under this opportunity.

In terms of applicants and award structure, eligible applicants include multinational secretariats, foreign governments, U.S. and foreign non-profits and NGOs, community and Indigenous organizations, and U.S. and foreign public or private institutions of higher education (as institutions, not individual students). The funding instrument is a grant with an award ceiling of $200,000. The original closing date listed for the opportunity was May 5, 2023, and the opportunity was created on March 6, 2023. Overall, the notice signals that USFWS is looking for practical, partner-driven conservation projects in high-biodiversity landscapes that can show clear outcomes in threat reduction, strengthened stewardship and governance, and durable local capacity to keep conservation going after the grant ends.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F23AS00125 - Latin America Regional Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.640.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-03-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-05-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for F23AS00125

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