What is Environment Restoration Fund?
Environment Restoration Fund is a grant to support on-ground environmental restoration and protection projects across three priority areas.
Background
The Environment Restoration Fund (the program) will run over four years from 2019-20 to 2022-23. The Australian Government announced the program in the 2019-20 Budget.
The program forms part of the Government’s 2019 environment policy, Our Plan for a CleanervEnvironment, and builds upon the Government’s $1 billion investment, over six years from 2017 tov2022-23, under the National Landcare Program. The program complements other Australian Government environment programs, including the Communities Environment Program, which focuses on ‘small-scale grants’ for community projects as well as existing investments delivered through the National Landcare Program, such as Regional Land Partnerships.
The program will help the Australian Government meet its national and international obligations, including under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).
Objectives
The objective of the program is to support on-ground environmental restoration and protection projects across the following three priority areas:
- protecting threatened and migratory species and their habitat
- protecting Australia’s coasts, oceans and waterways
- clean-up, recovery and recycling of waste.
Funding
The Australian Government has announced a total of $100 million over four years for the program. For this grant opportunity, $24.5 million is available over four years.
The grant amount will be 100 per cent of eligible project costs (grant percentage).
Eligible Projects
To be eligible your project must:
- be consistent with the relevant project description provided in Appendix A of the guidelines
- be aligned to one or more of the intended program objectives
- include activities and expenditure consistent with the project description
- support on-ground environmental restoration and protection across one of the three priority areas outlined in section 2. If your project aligns with the priority ‘Clean-up, recovery and recycling of waste’, eligible activities can include:
- activities that reduce the impact of waste and litter, such as litter clean-up events (including marine and coastal debris collection), and litter management technologies
- activities that encourage re-use and recycling, such as development of educational campaigns, technological applications and establishing online marketplaces.
If you cannot complete the project for the nominated grant amount, you can apply to change the relevant project scope outlined in Appendix A of the guidelines providing that the revised scope meets the program objectives and is within the agreed funding.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible your organisation must:
- be identified in Appendix A of the grant opportunity guidelines
- be invited to apply for a grant
- have an Australian Business Number (ABN).
The program can only accept applications:
- where you can provide evidence from your board (or chief executive officer, general manager or equivalent if there is no board) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by grant funding.
Timing
Applications close 12 December 2019.
