FY15-16 CRCP State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements

The summary for the FY15-16 CRCP State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Department of Commerce, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

FY15-16 CRCP State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements: Coral reefs and associated seagrass and mangrove communities are among the most complex and diverse ecosystems on earth. They support important fishing and tourism industries, protect coasts from wave and storm damage, build tropical islands, contain an array of potential pharmaceuticals, and provide local communities with a source of food, materials and traditional activities. As shallow-water, near shore communities, coral reef ecosystems are ecologically linked to adjacent watersheds and are highly vulnerable to human activity. Stresses in the coral reef environment include poor water quality from runoff and inadequate sewage treatment, sedimentation, destructive fishing practices, recreational overuse and misuse, and impacts from climate change, including changes in ocean chemistry. To address these and other threats, Congress passed the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 (Act), which established the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and provided guidance for allocation of Federal funding toward efforts to conserve coral reef ecosystems in the U.S. and internationally. As described in the Act, one of the primary functions of the CRCP is to provide financial assistance to external partners for coral reef conservation projects consistent with the Act and CRCP priorities. From 2002 to 2008, CRCP efforts were focused on priorities articulated in A National Coral Reef Action Strategy (http://coris.noaa.gov/activities/actionstrategy), which outlined the efforts needed to better understand coral reef ecosystems and reduce impacts from 13 key threats that had been identified by NOAA in conjunction with the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. Coral Reef Conservation Program priorities were refined and redirected in 2009 to focus program investments on three of the most pressing threats to coral reefs: land-based sources of pollution, fishing impacts, and climate impacts. The CRCP’s approach for addressing these threats is described in more detail in a number of documents, including: *the CRCP Goals and Objectives 2010-2015 (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/currentgoals/resources/3threats_go.pdf); *the seven Jurisdictional Coral Reef Management Priorities documents (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/reprioritization/managementpriorities); *the Jurisdictional Capacity Assessments, which evaluate each jurisdiction’s ability to implement coral reef conservation measures and identify impediments to effective coral reef conservation and management (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/reprioritization/capacityassessments/); *the CRCP International Strategy (http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/strategy/currentgoals/resources/intl_strategy.pdf). These documents are relevant to CRCP grant programs, but some may be more or less relevant to particular competitions. Please refer to the Program Priorities in Section I(B) for details on which of the above documents are relevant to this funding announcement. As required under the Act, NOAA published the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Grant Program (Grant Program) Implementation Guidelines (Guidelines) in Federal Register Vol. 67, No. 76, page 19396, on Friday, April 19, 2002. Based on CRCP efforts to realign the grant programs with updated program priorities, revised Guidelines were published on Thursday, August 12, 2010 in Federal Register Vol. 75, No. 155, pages 48934-48939 and are available at: http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcrcp/workwithus/funding/grants/welcome.html. All applications submitted in response to this Federal Funding Opportunity announcement must be consistent with the requirements stated herein and the CRCP Grant Program Implementation Guidelines. Funding is subject to the availability of Federal appropriations. In FY15, the CRCP intends to initiate new awards in the following 3 funding categories: 1. CRCP State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements 2. CRCP Domestic Coral Reef Conservation Grants 3. CRCP NGO Partnership Cooperative Agreements All of the following information in this funding opportunity pertains only to the CRCP State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements funding category.