Marine Turtle Conservation Fund

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) mission is to work with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The International Affairs Program delivers on this mission through its financial and technical assistance programs by supporting strategic projects that deliver measurable conservation results for priority species and their habitats around the world.

In response to the alarming decline of marine turtle populations worldwide and serious threats to their long-term survival, the U.S. Government enacted the Marine Turtle Conservation Act (MTCA) of 2004, and subsequently amended. The purpose of the MTCA is to assist in the conservation of marine turtles and their nesting habitats in foreign countries and U.S. territories by supporting projects that conserve marine turtles in their habitats, conserve their nesting habitats, and address other threats to the survival of marine turtles.

The goal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) Marine Turtle Conservation Program is to recover and sustain viable populations of marine turtles in the wild by reducing threats to these marine turtles in their natural habitat. We do this through financial and technical assistance to support evidence-based, quantifiable interventions with regular evaluations that shape our conservation strategy to carry out the purpose of the MTCA.

Competitive projects will work to support the Service's key objectives and enhance long-term conservation capacity for marine turtle populations. We broadly define capacity to include: 1) the capacity of habitat to sustain marine turtle populations through threat reduction, nesting beach protection and coastal resilience strategies, and 2) the capacity of individuals and institutions at local and national levels to champion the conservation of marine turtles in those countries and regions.

Deadline:  March 18, 2024