The Tribune

BY FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE BUSINESS REPORTER

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS Protected Areas Fund is preparing to put up to $3m into the hands of conservation organisations and government agencies as it moves to deploy funding generated by the country’s $300m debt-for-nature conversion.

Karen Panton, Executive Director of the Bahamas Protected Areas Fund (BPAF), said the organisation’s third grant call will open September 1, following approximately $400,000 already awarded to nine applicants earlier this year and a second call worth just over $1m that is before its board of directors.

“Actually, this is the third call that opens [this] week. We've already given about $400,000 out to about nine applicants. We did that earlier this year. We have a second call that's before my board of directors of just over a million dollars, and hopefully the third call, which opens up on September 1, we can get two or $3 m out and into the hands of various NGOs and government agencies as well,” said Ms Panton.

The funding is part of the approximately $124m in savings expected to be generated over 15 years from the Government’s $300m debt-for-nature conversion, with those savings being reinvested into conservation initiatives. The transaction was structured to strengthen marine protected areas and other critical conservation projects, with the conservation funding expected to flow through the 15-year period.

Ms Panton said BPAF expects to have more than $1m available for deployment each year, but stressed that the organisation wants to ensure projects funded through the programme deliver against the conservation commitments and milestones attached to the debt conversion.

“We've got over a million dollars every year that we'd like to get out, but we like to ensure that the projects that we're working on are actually the optimum projects that will move the needle for that project,” she said.

“The debt conversion project has certain milestones, certain conservation commitments, and we want to ensure that the funding that's being sent out annually moves towards those milestones, achieves those objectives.”

The latest push also signals an effort by BPAF to move beyond smaller, stand-alone conservation projects and encourage larger initiatives involving multiple stakeholders.

Ms Panton said the maximum grant has traditionally been about $50,000, but BPAF wants to see organisations collaborate on projects that could attract significantly larger awards.

“Their maximum grant has been about 50,000, but we'd like to see multiple stakeholders coming together, so we could do a $300,000 grant or a half a million dollar grant,” she said.

“That's where we want to go with this because we realize that if we make the investments in them now, not only can they get monies from BPAF, and BPAF is a GCF, is a Green Climate Fund endorsed entity, but then they can go up to other organizations for that funding as well.”

The push comes as BPAF works to strengthen the ability of Bahamian organisations to develop projects and compete for conservation and climate financing.

Ms Panton said the need for greater capacity became particularly apparent following Hurricane Dorian, when BPAF was active in the assessment and recovery process.

“We spent the last couple years trying to build that capacity in the space, trying to help them prepare better projects, write better problem statements, log frames, and so forth,” she said.

The organisation is now using grant-writing, monitoring, evaluation and learning workshops to help potential applicants better understand how to develop proposals that can meet BPAF's funding requirements.

The projects being proposed span climate change, stony coral tissue loss disease, marine protected areas, pollution, invasive species, marine management plans and education.

Ms Panton said BPAF wants the funding to have a wider economic impact through the development of the blue economy.

“This project is not just for conservation, but for the blue economy as a whole and all of what that means, and it's sustainable tourism. We've got to spread it out so that the man on the street benefits as well,” she said.

BPAF is also encouraging applicants to present projects as part of longer-term programmes rather than one-off initiatives.

“If you've got a marine plan, and you've got phase one, phase two, phase three, phase four, bring that in,” said Ms Panton.

“They have thought about this. They actually have this going out to two, three, four, five years, 10 years. They have a plan. We want to be behind that because then that moves the conservation needle even more in the right direction.”

Applicants can also return for additional funding, with Ms Panton noting another disbursement can be considered once 70 percent of previous funding has been expended toward a new project.

The response to BPAF's capacity-building effort has been strong, she said, with more than 30 groups and individuals registering for the latest session.

“So yes, there's a hunger, there's a desire,” said Ms Panton.

The latest funding push represents the next stage in the implementation of the debt-for-nature conversion, following earlier efforts to identify the staffing, capacity and management needs of agencies responsible for marine protected areas. The Government has previously acknowledged that while the approximately $124m in conservation funding will significantly strengthen the sector, it will not fully close the country's conservation funding gap.