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Crowder-Messersmith Fund
Current Recipients | Past Recipients | Donate
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Wild orchids in Nepal are rescued from trees felled for timber and firewood; the orchids will be placed in new host trees. |
The Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund helps small, mostly local, conservation and/or education projects in underdeveloped countries. Its small grants give a leg up to communities and individuals whose projects have not attracted major support from other sources. Grants have helped more than 75 projects with start-up costs since 1974, when Dr. Donald Messersmith established this memorial to his friend and collaborator Orville Crowder. The Audubon Naturalist Society has administered it since 1999.
If you wish to apply, download the application form and instructions, click here. The email address to use for sending your application is provided in the instructions.
APPLICATION TIME FRAME We begin accepting applications December 1. Deadline for receipt is February 1. Decisions are generally announced by March 1.
GRANT AMOUNT Maximum: U.S. $2,000
REQUIREMENTS AND RESTRICTIONS
The Project must: (1) be outside the United States or other developed countries, (2) involve the local population through educational workshops, materials, etc., (3) if research, must be for conservation purposes rather than just to obtain scientific data, (4) exclude overhead expenses (funds must go for salaries, publication costs, equipment, room and board, not for such operating expenses as taxes, utilities and insurance)
Preference is given to projects that (1) will benefit the human, plant and animal communities of a particular habitat in an ecologically sustainable manner; (2) have lasting significance to local residents, rather than just passing interest to visiting researchers; (3) protect endangered species and habitats; or (4) have public education value.
Preference is given to applicants who have a record of prior conservation action relevant to their proposed project. Applicants from countries other than the United States are especially encouraged to apply. U.S. researchers planning work in foreign countries must have at least one local collaborator on their research team.
A final report is required upon completion of the project or by November of the year the project is funded.
Crowder-Messersmith Fund Supports Projects in Nepal, Ethiopia, India, Ukraine, and Columbia
Grantees for 2010 are:
>> Jyoti Bhandari of the Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, Nepal to raise conservation awareness of the Eurasian otters of Begnas Lake ($1,700). Local fishermen believe that the otters compete with them for fish, and so kill otters and destroy their wetland habitat. Mr. Bhandari will work with fishing families and schoolchildren in the area to educate them about the otters and encourage preservation of the animals and wetlands.
>> Dhirendra Pradhan, also of Pokhara, Nepal, to continue his work strengthening the conservation of threatened orchids in Chitwan Valley, Nepal ($1,950). Using a 2009 Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund grant, Mr. Pradhan, a forester, taught orchid conservation to 180 secondary-school students and 200 members of local community forest user groups, to assure that orchids for the international orchid trade are harvested sustainably. He also rescued orchids that people had detached from host trees (under the mistaken belief that orchids harm the trees). This year, he will expand the 2009 program and try to include orchid conservation provisions in the region’s forest management plans.
Past Recipients
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Donate
If you would like to donate to the Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund, click here. Choose “Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund” on second page under "Designation."
You may also send a check, per instructions here with “Crowder-Messersmith Conservation Fund” on the check’s memo line. |
—Janet Bogue, Crowder-Messersmith Grant Administrator
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