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Announcing WWF’s Arctic Community Wildlife Grants Program

Aerial photo of beluga pod passing through ice floes

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is happy to announce that submissions are open for the WWF Arctic Community Wildlife Grants program.

The program provides grants of up to about $25,000 per project per year for conservation, stewardship, and research initiatives that focus on coastal US Arctic ecology, community sustainability, and priority Arctic wildlife, including polar bears, walrus, ice seals, belugas, bowhead whales, and Arctic seabirds in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas and adjacent coastal areas.

Grants are intended to address community concerns and achieve meaningful outcomes for the conservation of Arctic wildlife and the people who depend on them. The 2023 pilot phase of this program advanced our understanding of beluga whale movements in the Yukon River through collaboration with Yup’ik hunters and utilization of underwater hydrophone technology.

Communities and wildlife are inextricably connected in the US Arctic and have been for thousands of years. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of WWF’s Arctic Community Wildlife Grants projects; both to improve our understanding of biodiversity across coastal Alaska, and to help address related concerns raised by Alaska Native communities. With ongoing threats to the Arctic, including coastal erosion, sea ice loss, and encroaching industrial activity, working with Alaska Native communities to protect and conserve cultural heritage and wildlife is more important than ever.”

Steve MacLean, Managing Director of WWF-US Arctic Program

Those interested in utilizing these funds are encouraged to apply at any time. The application process has been streamlined and designed to accommodate a variety of communication styles to ensure that prior experience with proposal-writing will not be a limiting factor for any applicant.

Details and application h

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