Environmental Co-operation Action Fund (ECAF) For Rural Development in Scotland

Deadline: 15 January 2016

The Scottish Government is currently inviting applications for the Environmental Co-operation action fund to rural development in the areas of Scotland.

The Environmental Co-operation Action Fund (ECAF) is jointly funded by the Scottish Government and European Union under the Scottish Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. The Environmental Co-operation Action Fund (ECAF) promotes the delivery of landscape-scale environmental projects by groups of farmers, foresters and other land managers.

Priority Areas

It funds economic, environmental and social measures for the benefit of rural Scotland. The key purpose of the SRDP 2014 – 2020 is to help achieve sustainable economic growth in Scotland’s rural areas and the priorities remains broadly the same as the previous programme: The main priorities are:

Enhancing the rural economy
Supporting agricultural and forestry businesses
Protecting and improving the natural environment
Addressing the impact of climate change
Supporting rural communities

Grants Available

Grant support of £250 per day is available for up to 40 days to support the cost of a project co-ordinator for the following stages of a project:

Feasibility
Consolidation

Eligibility Criteria

Applications can be submitted by either a facilitator on behalf of a group or a group of landowners/organisation that wishes to appoint a facilitator, such as:
- woodland owners
- farmers
- other land managers
- fully constituted community groups
- non-government organisations
- private companies and organisations
Public bodies are eligible to apply. They, and other organisations, must meet the following criteria:
- both the facilitation and the environmental activities are additional to the delivery of their statutory duties, core functions and routine, recurrent activity.
- projects make a clear and significant contribution to their chosen Environmental Co-operation Action Fund priority.
- they involve relevant public bodies – which could include Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or Forestry Commission Scotland – and other stakeholders or local communities in the delivery of shared environmental outcomes.