Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund
Overview
The fund was launched in 2014 and has had significant reach: committing over £51m to 157 projects up to Round 9; working with local communities in over 60 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. It runs alongside Defra’s Biodiversity Challenge Funds, including the Darwin Initiative and Darwin Plus, and also the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) Grants Programme. Please carefully consider which fund is the best fit for your proposed project.
What projects may be funded?
The intended impact of the IWT Challenge Fund is to provide innovative and scalable solutions to reduce pressure on wildlife from illegal trade and, in doing so, reduce poverty in eligible countries.
Applications should propose ideas that test or scale approaches in line with one or more of the IWT Challenge Fund themes:
- Reducing demand for IWT products;
- Ensuring effective legal frameworks and deterrents;
- Strengthening law enforcement;
- Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT.
Defra welcomes applications that cover a broad range of interests across these themes. If a large number of applications are received, they will prioritise projects that align with Defra’s current strategic priorities. Please see Figure 2 in Guidance which provides further information on the thematic areas.
IWT Challenge Fund support is available to projects that relate to any species of fauna, flora and fungi impacted by IWT.
The IWT Challenge Fund is entirely Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded, and therefore projects must promote the economic development and welfare of eligible countries as a primary objective. See Guidance for list of eligible countries.
Applications should make a clear case for:
- Innovation
- Evidence use and generation, and scalability
- Capability and Capacity
- Poverty Reduction
See Guidance for full details.
Applicant Requirements
Applications must be made by the Lead Organisation, not an individual, agreeing to the Terms and Conditions. They Lead organisations:
- Can be based anywhere but they strongly encourage projects to have local/national Lead Organisations where possible;
- Can include UK government agencies;
- Must not be seeking funds with a maximum annual value that exceeds 25% of the Lead Organisation’s average annual turnover/income for the previous 3 years;
There is no limit on the number of applications a Lead Organisation may submit, but they would strongly encourage internal co-ordination to ensure all submissions are competitive.
The Project Leader is the individual with the necessary authority, capability and capacity, and a full understanding of their role and associated obligations to take responsibility for:
- delivering value for money, managing risk and financial controls whilst fulfilling the terms and conditions of the grant;
- being the first point of contact for all aspects of project management, and will be responsible for the overall management of the project and accountability of the award, on behalf of the institution they represent;
Where the Project Leader is not employed by the Lead Organisation, the reasoning behind should be made clear in the application, including their capability to control and be held accountable for the proposed project
Applicants are asked to identify up to three conservation actions that characterise your approach and up to three threats to biodiversity you intend to address.
Funding
There are three funding schemes to apply for as outlined below:
IWT Challenge Fund Extra:
Grants ranging from £600,000 to £1,500,000, are for projects aimed at expanding activities that have already demonstrated success and impact at a smaller scale. This can be through landscape or replication scaling, or through delivering systems change which will have sustained impact beyond the project’s original scale. Applications should provide evidence of the interventions success at a smaller scale, its potential impact at a larger scale, and the political and operational feasibility to scale. Competition for Extra grants is expected to be strong, and they anticipate making only a limited number of grants of this size.
Active IWT Challenge Fund Main projects can apply to IWT Challenge Fund Extra. Applicants will need to make a case for how new support would deliver additional activities and Outputs.
Duration:
Projects should last between 2 to 4 years maximum. Projects are required to complete by 31 August 2029.
IWT Challenge Fund Main:
Grants ranging from £75,000 to £600,000, are expected to deliver strong results to tackle IWT and poverty reduction based on good evidence, and strongly demonstrate the potential to scale. Main grants will be awarded to projects which test new and innovative interventions to provide proof of concept at a smaller scale. Applications should provide evidence for the problem the intervention addresses, the gap it fills in existing approaches, and indicate its potential to be scaled in a real-world setting.
Duration:
Projects should last between 1 to 3 years maximum. Projects are required to complete by 31 August 2028.
IWT Challenge Fund Evidence:
Grants ranging from £20,000 to £100,000, are for projects which gather evidence to design an intervention. Applications should describe how the improved evidence base will be used to design an intervention where there is a gap in approaches. Projects may include, for example, market research to design and baseline demand reduction interventions. Applicants are encouraged to develop evidence projects into full interventions as part of follow-on applications to the IWT Challenge Fund.
Applications that contain significant interventions that are not focussed on evidence building should consider applying for an IWT Challenge Fund Main grant, as this maybe more appropriate.
Duration:
Projects should last up to 2 years maximum. Projects are required to complete by 31 March 2027.
Organisations, including academic institutions and private sector organisations can apply for funding to help tackle the illegal wildlife trade and in doing so, to contribute to sustainable development in developing countries.
Please note all IWT Challenge Fund projects should address one, or more, of the following themes:
- Reducing demand for IWT products
- Ensuring effective legal frameworks and deterrents
- Strengthening law enforcement
- Developing sustainable livelihoods to benefit people directly affected by IWT
The intended impact of the IWT Challenge Fund is:
To provide innovative and scalable solutions to reduce pressure on wildlife from illegal trade and, in doing so, reduce poverty in developing countries.
Applications should propose ideas that test, or scale approaches aligned to one or more of the project themes. Applications should be able to make a clear case:
- How the proposed interventions are innovative, needed and likely to be effective,
- How they develop evidence of impact (or potential impact if scaled) and contribute to best practice for supporting successful IWT interventions,
- How they respond to beneficiaries’ priorities and enhance the capability and capacity to create sustained impact of key stakeholders, and •
- ow they will deliver simultaneous gains in tackling IWT and poverty reduction.
The funding is being made available through the 10th round of the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund which will support projects via three schemes:
- IWT Challenge Fund Extra will award grants of between £600,000 and £1.5 million for 2 to 4 year projects;
- IWT Challenge Fund Main will award grants of between £75,000 and £600,000 for 1 to 3 year projects;
- IWT Challenge Fund Evidence will award grants of between £20,000 and £100,000 for projects lasting up to 2 years.
IWT Challenge Fund support is available to projects that relate to any species of fauna, flora and fungi impacted by IWT. In the application forms you will be requested to name specific focal species using both their common and scientific names. For example, if a project relates to the Sunda Pangolin, they require “Sunda Pangolin, Manis javanica”. If the project relates to all Asian Pangolins then “Pangolin, Manis sp.” is accepted.
Applications are particularly encouraged from sub–Saharan Africa, East and South East Asia and Latin America and must meet ODA eligibility requirements listed in Annex A.
Please review the Guidlines and other documents available on their website.