International Elephant Foundation Invites Proposals for 2016 Asian Elephant Conservation Projects

Deadline: 14 August 2015

The International Elephant Foundation is accepting proposals for 2016 Asian elephant in situ conservation projects. Students, scientists, and nonprofits organizations are eligible for this grant. Students are required to provide faculty advisor approval.

An international workshop held in Malaysia in 2006 brought all 13 range country representatives together to conduct a threats assessment and identify limiting factors affecting population abundance in Asian elephants.

Areas of Focus

For the 2016 grant cycle, the Foundation will only accept applications that target the 5 identified factors, these include:

lack of adequate status and threats assessment;
habitat fragmentation and loss;
human-Asian elephant conflict;
illegal killing and trade; and
managing captive Asian Elephants

The highest priority given to:

Managing captive range country Asian elephants;
Human-Asian elephant coexistence; and
Reducing habitat fragmentation and loss.

Grant Size

Requests of $10,000 or less per year are preferred but larger amounts will be considered.

Eligibility Criteria

International individuals and organizations are eligible as are students, scientists and institutions.
Students are required to provide faculty advisor approval; the advisor should be a co-investigator on the application and must accept the responsibility of project completion and reporting.
Projects must begin in the year that they are applying for funding, (but not before funds are to be awarded) and contain a clearly defined beginning and end.
Proposals must meet some or all of the following objectives and criteria:
- Clearly contribute to the in situ of Asian elephants or their habitats.
- Be grounded in sound scientific methodology, be logistically feasible, and have a high probability of success.
- Be part of an established conservation program or be well-suited to become a long-term
- Validates a new approach for long-term elephant and/or habitat conservation
- Be action-oriented not simply data collection or survey.
- Have multi-institutional participation and matching funds.
- Demonstrate a spirit of cooperation with ex situ elephant facilities and other like-minded conservation institutions.
- Principal investigators must have a reputation for completing projects, publishing results in an expeditious manner and cooperating with funding agencies in providing reports and educational materials. If awarded funding previously by the IEF, satisfactory performance on previous grant awards is essential.
- Must meet humane standards of care when animals are involved.
- Must be approved by the appropriate governmental body in the range country or agency at the facility or institution where the study is conducted.