CEPF Mediterranean Basin Large Grants 2026: US$50,000–US$180,000 for Traditional Land Use and Threatened Plant Conservation, Letters of Inquiry Closing 18 September 2026

CEPF Mediterranean Basin Large Grants 2026: US$50,000–US$180,000 for Traditional Land Use and Threatened Plant Conservation, Letters of Inquiry Closing 18 September 2026

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund opened a large-grant call for the Mediterranean Basin Biodiversity Hotspot on 1 July 2026, and it closes at midnight EDT on Friday, 18 September 2026. Grants run from US$50,000 to US$180,000, and projects are expected to start no earlier than 1 January 2027.

This is a narrow call, and that is the most important thing to understand about it before spending a week on an application. CEPF is not asking for general conservation proposals from around the Mediterranean. It is asking for work under two specific strategic directions, in a specific list of countries that differs between those two directions, and — for one of them — inside six named mountain corridors. Proposals that sit outside that frame will not be reviewed on their merits; they will simply be ineligible.

If your work does fall inside the frame, the terms are unusually good for civil society organizations in the region: a two-stage process that starts with a short letter of inquiry rather than a full proposal, a review turnaround of roughly eight weeks, named program officers who will discuss eligibility with you before you apply, and a funder whose stated purpose is to get money into the hands of local organizations rather than international intermediaries.

Key details

What CEPF is and where the money comes from

CEPF is a joint initiative of l’Agence française de développement, Conservation International, the European Union, Fondation Franklinia, Fondation Hans Wilsdorf, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Canada, the Government of Japan, the Hempel Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and the World Bank. In the Mediterranean hotspot, Fondation Audemars-Watkins provides additional funding.

That donor list matters for two practical reasons. First, it explains why CEPF’s stated fundamental goal is to ensure civil society — not government agencies — is engaged in biodiversity conservation: the fund exists specifically to reach organizations that multilateral money usually cannot reach directly. Second, it explains the compliance layer described later in this guide. Money that passes through Conservation International as host of the CEPF Secretariat carries World Bank–style safeguard requirements with it.

The Mediterranean Basin is the second largest biodiversity hotspot in the world and the largest of the world’s five Mediterranean-climate regions. CEPF updated its investment strategy for the hotspot in 2024, and the resulting 2025–2030 strategy is documented in the ecosystem profile. That profile is the single most useful document for an applicant, and the call explicitly directs applicants to chapters 12 and 13 for eligible activities and chapter 14 for the results framework.

Strategic Direction 3: traditional land-use practices in mountain corridors

SD3 aims to promote traditional land-use practices that maintain biodiversity in priority corridors. Investment Priority 3.1 supports traditional resource managers to follow land management practices that maintain biodiversity in mountain landscapes. All eight countries are eligible under this direction.

The geographic filter is tight. Projects must take place in one of six named corridors:

• The Atlas Mountains (Morocco)
• The Rif Mountains (Morocco)
• The Eastern Adriatic (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro)
• The Southwest Balkans (Montenegro, North Macedonia)
• The Tellian Atlas Mountains (Tunisia)
• The Levantine Mountains (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine)

Within those corridors, CEPF will prioritize mountainous Key Biodiversity Areas above 500 metres of elevation, as listed in Annex 2 of the ecosystem profile beginning at page 287. Projects may extend beyond the strict boundaries of a KBA to follow a landscape approach and account for ecological connectivity, but the centre of gravity should be a KBA with impacts on threatened species.

The substance CEPF wants here is specific. Traditional management practices survive across the region, but in many rural areas the evolution of agricultural practice has homogenized habitats and species. The core of SD3 is working with traditional resource managers so they can improve their livelihoods while maintaining biodiversity-rich practices, with specific focus on livestock grazing. The aim is livestock levels and management compatible with maintaining valuable habitats in and around KBAs. Because grazing usually sits alongside other agricultural practices that produce the mosaic character of these landscapes, projects may include activities to sustain and improve those practices too.

Crucially, CEPF names the economic mechanism it expects: enabling resource users to increase income through better processing and marketing of products, including certification and labelling, and through options such as payment for environmental services or access to government support. Innovative techniques and tools are welcome so long as they support the sustainability of traditional land-use practices. A proposal that describes habitat outcomes but has no credible answer to “how do the herders end up better off” is misaligned with this direction.

Strategic Direction 4: threatened plants conservation

SD4 aims to strengthen civil society engagement in conserving threatened plants and plant communities. It is open in five countries only: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Lebanon, Montenegro and Palestine. Morocco, North Macedonia and Tunisia are not eligible under SD4 in this call — a distinction that is easy to miss when skimming the headline country list.

Three investment priorities are open:

• 4.1 — Build the capacity of the botanical community to increase knowledge and skills and engage in applied conservation of threatened plants.
• 4.2 — Secure better implementation of plant conservation in the management of protected areas.
• 4.3 — Take innovative actions for the conservation of threatened plants, working with landowners and land users.

Projects must focus on sites containing priority plant species, which CEPF defines precisely: species listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable on the IUCN Global Red List; species not yet assessed globally but included on regional red lists or that would qualify for global CR, EN or VU status under IUCN criteria; and site-restricted endemics, meaning taxa occurring in only one site worldwide, or with an extent of occurrence under 100 km², or an area of occupancy under 10 km².

CEPF says priority will go to projects that demonstrate a focus on one or more priority species or address a priority need for plant conservation; that lead directly to conservation action for those species; that include, where possible, a significant capacity-building component for the implementers or their local partners such as community resource users or protected area managers; that complement other site- or landscape-level projects, CEPF-funded or not, creating synergy between the plant conservation community and other conservation actors; that address sites with demonstrable funding need and opportunity for success; and that have transboundary or regional cooperation elements.

Who can apply, and who cannot

Non-governmental organizations, community groups, universities and small private enterprises may apply. Individuals cannot apply directly — they must work with a civil society organization to develop the application.

Two hard organizational requirements apply: the organization must have its own bank account, and it must be authorized under relevant national laws to receive charitable contributions. Government-owned enterprises or institutions are eligible only if they can demonstrate all three of the following: legal personality independent of any government agency or actor; authority to apply for and receive private funds; and that they may not assert a claim of sovereign immunity. State botanic gardens, national park agencies and public universities in the region should check this carefully rather than assume.

There is also a portfolio rule that catches people out. You may submit more than one LOI, but only if the applications fall under different strategic directions. Regardless, CEPF will not award more than one project per organization under this call. Submitting three variations of the same idea under SD3 is not a strategy; it is an eligibility problem.

Grants cannot be used for the purchase of land, involuntary resettlement of people, or activities that negatively affect physical cultural resources, including those important to local communities. Activities that adversely affect Indigenous Peoples, or where those communities have not given broad support to the project, are excluded, as is the removal or alteration of any physical cultural property — sites with archaeological, paleontological, historical, religious or unique natural value. CEPF’s general exclusions also apply, covering child or forced labour, large or complex dams, salaries for government security personnel, firearms, banned or highly toxic chemicals and pesticides, and the introduction of potentially invasive non-indigenous species.

How the two-stage process works

Stage one is the letter of inquiry. It is submitted online through the ConservationGrants portal, in English or French. CEPF is explicit that it will not accept LOIs by email or any other mechanism. The fields you will be asked to complete are described in CEPF’s Letter of Inquiry template, available from the How to Apply page — download it early and draft offline, so that portal time is spent pasting rather than composing.

Existing CEPF partners and past applicants should log in with their existing credentials rather than creating a second account. New applicants must register on the same page. Technical problems with the portal go to [email protected].

The review takes approximately eight weeks from the deadline, so decisions should land around mid-November 2026. A review committee selects the strongest LOIs among those that meet the eligibility criteria, and CEPF says all applicants will receive a response.

Stage two is the full proposal, developed in ConservationGrants by invitation only. Successful full proposals lead to a grant agreement between Conservation International, as host of the CEPF Secretariat, and the applicant institution. Grants are denominated in US dollars and grant agreements are in English.

Invited applicants should expect to supply a substantial compliance package alongside the proposal narrative: a security screening request form, a financial questionnaire with supporting documents, a W-9 or W-8BEN-E tax form, bank account information, signatory information, and a cash flow estimate for the first five months of the grant. CEPF may require a project-specific bank account to be opened before the project begins. Separately, every grant is screened against CEPF’s safeguard policies, and applicants whose project triggers one or more of them will be asked to prepare the relevant safeguard documents and build preventative measures into the project design.

Timeline and what to do between now and 18 September

• 1 July 2026 — Call opened.
• 23 July 2026 — English informational webinar (9:30 a.m. UTC+2).
• 28 July 2026 — French informational webinar (11:00 a.m. UTC+2).
• 30 August 2026 — Last date for questions; anything received later will not be answered.
• 18 September 2026 — LOI deadline, midnight EDT (UTC−4), Washington D.C. time.
• Mid-November 2026 — Approximate end of the eight-week LOI review.
• 1 January 2027 — Earliest project start date.

The 30 August question cut-off is the date to plan around, not the 18 September deadline. It gives you roughly four weeks from now to identify your KBA or priority species, confirm eligibility with a program officer, and settle the design — leaving the final three weeks for drafting and submission.

Note the time zone. Midnight EDT is 06:00 in Morocco and most of the Balkans, and 07:00 in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine on the morning of 19 September. CEPF states that applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted whatever the reason, and advises submitting a few days early to avoid connection problems. Treat 16 September as your real deadline.

Where applications lose points

Geography that almost fits. A project in a Moroccan mountain landscape that is not in the Atlas or the Rif is not eligible under SD3 in this call. A plant conservation project in Tunisia is not eligible under SD4 at all. Check the corridor list and the per-direction country list before anything else.

No named site or species. Both directions are anchored to specifics — KBAs above 500 metres for SD3, defined priority plant species for SD4. Cite the KBA from Annex 2 of the ecosystem profile, or name the species and its Red List category or endemism status. Vague references to “biodiversity-rich areas” read as a proposal that has not done its homework.

Conservation without livelihoods, under SD3. The direction is built on the idea that traditional resource managers keep managing traditionally when it pays. Describe the income mechanism concretely — the product, the market, the certification route, the payment-for-services scheme — rather than asserting that awareness-raising will change behaviour.

Gender treated as a box. CEPF states plainly that the integration of gender in your project will be a factor in evaluation, and publishes a Gender Toolkit and Gender Fact Sheet to show what it looks for. A single sentence promising equal participation is weaker than a design that identifies who actually holds and uses the resource in question, and how the project reaches them.

Working alone. CEPF’s published preferences favour projects that show a leading role for local organizations, build local civil society capacity, and coordinate with others to avoid duplication. SD4 explicitly rewards transboundary or regional cooperation. Named partners with defined roles beat a solo applicant with broad ambitions.

Skipping the conversation. CEPF encourages applicants to discuss eligibility with their regional program officer before applying. That conversation is free, it happens before the 30 August cut-off, and it is the cheapest way to find out that your idea is misaligned.

Frequently asked questions

Can an individual researcher apply? No. Individuals must work with a civil society organization to develop the application rather than applying directly.

Can we apply if we already have a CEPF grant? The call restricts awards to one project per organization under this call, and allows multiple LOIs only under different strategic directions. Discuss your situation with the program officer for your region.

How long can the project run? The call does not state a maximum duration; it states that projects are expected to begin on 1 January 2027 at the earliest. Design a timeline that is proportionate to a US$50,000–US$180,000 budget and confirm expectations with the regional team.

Does the LOI need a detailed budget? The LOI is a short first-stage document; the detailed financial package — financial questionnaire, cash flow estimate, bank details — is requested at full proposal stage. Follow the Letter of Inquiry template for what stage one actually requires.

What if we are refused at LOI stage? CEPF says all applicants receive a response after review. CEPF runs calls on a rolling basis across hotspots, so a refusal on scope may simply mean waiting for a call that matches your work; sign up for the CEPF newsletter to hear about future ones.

Is small-grant funding available too? Yes, but through separate calls. As of early August 2026 a separate CEPF call for small grants in the Guinean Forests of West Africa hotspot closes 31 August 2026. Small grants use offline templates and are reviewed by the regional implementation team, with no full-proposal stage.

Contacts and official links

Before applying, CEPF encourages applicants to discuss eligibility with the program officer for their region at BirdLife International:

• Balkans — Marijana Demajo, [email protected]
• North Africa — Awatef Abiadh, [email protected]
• Middle East — Ibrahim al Hasani, [email protected]

If the program officer is unavailable, applicants can contact Mediterranean Basin Grant Director Pierre Carret at [email protected], or Mediterranean Basin Regional Implementation Team Leader Vedran Lucic at [email protected]. General CEPF questions go to [email protected], and ConservationGrants technical problems to [email protected]. Remember that questions received after 30 August 2026 will not be answered.

Official pages worth reading in full: the call for letters of inquiry, which carries the detailed call document in English and French; eligibility; how to apply, which links the Letter of Inquiry template and the full-proposal document set; safeguard policies; CEPF and gender; and the project database, which is the fastest way to see what a funded CEPF project in this region actually looks like.