Oceans Management Funding Opportunities

This is the first national Call for Proposals under this program, provides open access to at least $5 million in funding for eligible marine conservation projects across the country.

Program objectives

The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to protect, conserve and manage Canada’s marine environment by investing in nature-based solutions, such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs). In response to the growth of international scientific research about the measures needed to address biodiversity loss and global climate change, we are committed to increasing the conservation of Canada’s oceans to 25% by 2025, working towards 30% by 2030.

Under Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made an historic investment to protect the health of our oceans, including close to $1 billion in funding over 5 years to reach ambitious marine conservation targets.

The strategy for implementing the marine conservation targets initiative builds on lessons learned from meeting Canada’s original target of 10% protection of marine and coastal areas by 2020. Previous efforts have demonstrated that achieving marine conservation within Canada requires a multi-pronged approach that is based on best available information and provides opportunity for meaningful engagement of partners and stakeholders.

In order to achieve these new marine conservation targets, progress will be advanced in 5 key areas:

1. effective management
   manage existing MPAs and OECMs to ensure they are effective in achieving their conservation objectives
2. new site establishment
   establish new MPAs and OECMs to meet the 25% target by 2025
3. collaboration
   continue to build upon and foster meaningful partnerships with provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments and local communities, to advance effective ocean planning and conservation activities
4. marine spatial planning
   advance marine conservation within the broader context of marine spatial planning and Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy, which is still in development, to help enable ambitious marine conservation objectives while also allowing for sustainable growth in our ocean sectors as part of the development of a resilient blue economy
5. international advocacy
   continue to take a leadership role along with like-minded countries to advocate for conserving 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030

In order to support the achievement of Canada’s Marine Conservation Targets, this funding program places priority on funding projects that fall under the following categories:

• outreach
  building awareness and connection to Canada’s oceans through engagement, education and literacy
• monitoring and stewardship
  partnering for MPA/OECM monitoring and stewardship including data integration and support for baseline data collection
• capacity building
  enhancing capacity for governance and meaningful participation in marine planning and conservation for Indigenous communities and key stakeholders

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