Bourses du Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund

CEPF has been making grants in the Mediterranean Basin since June 2012, with 102 grants totaling $10.1 million. CEPF grant making currently follows an ecosystem profile developed through an extensive stakeholder consultation process conducted in 2009-2010.

Much has changed in the six years since the Ecosystem Profile was prepared, in terms of economic trends, capacities of civil society, political landscape, donor investment or biological data available. There is a need to update the ecosystem profile, through a participatory process, to create a platform on which funders interested in making grants to civil society groups working in the Mediterranean Basin over the next five years can share goals and strategies. The updated Ecosystem Profile sets out a situational analysis, based upon a review of biodiversity priorities, threats, policy environment, civil society context, and patterns of conservation investment, and present a stakeholder-agreed-upon geographic and thematic investment strategy. The update:

• secure broad-based scientific agreement on the biological priorities for conservation,
• provide an updated description of the socioeconomic factors that drive threats to natural resources,
• provide an overview of civil society as a partner in conservation,
• define an investment strategy for CEPF and provide a framework for other stakeholders funding conservation action in the region.