Biodiversity Challenge Fund: outcomes and eligibility

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) global assessment in May 2019 showed unprecedented global declines in nature. 

The State of Nature Scotland Report 2019 reflects that in the five decades since consistent scientific monitoring began there has been a 24% decline in average species abundance across monitored wildlife.  

The high-level priorities of this third round of the Biodiversity Challenge Fund (BCF3) continue to align with the IPBES direct drivers of biodiversity loss:

• Land and sea-use change
• Direct exploitation of organisms
• Climate change and its impacts
• Pollution
• Invasive non-native species (INNS)

Climate change makes all factors more significant in impact and in this third round of funding, we are again seeking to support targeted nature-based solutions that help to tackle the climate emergency. All project proposals must demonstrate how the project will help to address climate change and/or its impacts.

The third round of the Biodiversity Challenge Fund will target transformational change to increase the biodiversity and environmental value of land and sea, maintaining a focus on habitats and species, while simultaneously supporting green skills, training and jobs where that is possible. In doing so, successful projects from this third round of funding will contribute to the green recovery as we emerge from Covid-19 and work towards a nature rich future.