Grants offered to Asean forestry projects

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines — Applications for small grants are now open social forestry projects in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The call for the proposals was issued by the Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) based in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) here.

SEARCA administers the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry (AWG-SF)-Strategic Proposal Fund (ASRF) program.

As program administrator, the center is inviting ASEAN member states (AMS), including the Philippines, to submit proposals that address problems or issues of strategic importance such as food insecurity, poverty and climate change in Southeast Asia.

The ASRF is under the ASEAN-Swiss partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change Phase 3. It is designed to provide AWG-SF Leaders and Focal Points with seed funds to enable them to respond to immediate needs to catalyze strategic actions that will address emerging issues and opportunities.

Each AMS is allocated a minimum budget of $25,000 and has the option to propose one or two projects.

Deadline for proposals is Oct. 16, 2017.