Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has announced 15 new grant awards to conservation nonprofits implementing innovative approaches or mainstreaming methods for helping wildlife, ecosystems, and people adapt to climate change. These grants are made through the award-winning Climate Adaptation Fund, which awards grants between $50,000 and $300,000 to conservation nonprofit organizations annually, for up to $5 million in grantmaking over the course of two years.

With funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund has awarded over $25 million to 124 conservation projects since its inception. In 2021, the Fund shifted its funding priorities and started awarding grants in two categories: Adaptation Implementation and Adaptation Mainstreaming. This shift in funding priorities came in response to the increasing urgency of the climate crisis and findings from a ten-year retrospective evaluation conducted in partnership with the University of British Columbia. The need for innovative, science-driven work, executed at a faster pace and broader scale is clearer than ever, with unprecedented amounts of public funding allocated to support climate adaptation and resilience.

Awarded projects in the Implementation category will use innovative interventions and evidence-gathering components to accelerate learning in the field. Mainstreaming projects will bring adaptation approaches with previously demonstrated success to scale where there is a need or demand.

Funded organizations for 2022 are as follows:

Implementation

Alaska Wildlife Alliance

Bat Conservation International

Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Grand Staircase Escalante Partners

The Nature Conservancy, New Hampshire

Trees, Water, & People, Inc.

The Trustees of Reservations

Urban Resources Initiative

Mainstreaming

American Rivers

Manomet Inc.

Mississippi Park Connection

National Audubon Society, Washington

Northwest Natural Resource Group

Oregon Natural Desert Association

Pacific Rim Conservation

The 2022 award recipients span a number of geographies and a variety of ecosystems, from boggy carbon-rich peatlands in Alaska to coastal marshes in Georgia. Over half of this year's grant partners are first-time recipients of a Climate Adaptation Fund grant and four of the projects have tribal partners. The diversity of these projects in terms of geographies, ecosystems, wildlife and communities, as well as the innovative nature of the implementation methods is intended to accelerate the adaptation field’s pace of learning to implement and scale viable climate solutions for biodiversity.

Disseminating these lessons learned is another key component of the funded projects. Each implementation project includes a plan for results-sharing through strategic communications, to ensure their findings serve a purpose beyond informing the individual project sites. Mainstreaming projects are specifically designed to bring a tested climate solution to scale or to remove barriers to wider implementation of adaptation solutions.

Said Liz Tully, Associate Director of the Climate Adaptation Fund:

“Climate change has already made landfall and while the race is on to mitigate its impacts and prevent future havoc from atmospheric greenhouse gasses, these projects and our local partners will continue to address the extreme disruptions that are already occurring on the ground for nature, ensuring that past and present investments in conservation are successful.”

For detailed descriptions and videos of projects supported by the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, visit our website: http://wcsclimateadaptationfund.org

Stay updated on the Climate Adaptation Fund by following us on Twitter and Instagram at @WCSAdapts.

 

About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Environment Program

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The mission of DDCF’s Environment Program is to ensure a thriving, resilient environment for wildlife and people, and foster an inclusive, effective conservation movement. For more information, please visit www.ddcf.org.