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The Otago Regional Council has increased the amount of money available for environmental community projects this year to $900,000 with the establishment of a new contestable fund for "large-scale" biodiversity projects.
Environmental implementation manager Libby Caldwell said the addition of $300,000 for the large-scale project fund to the annual community funding pool was because the council’s Eco Fund and Incentives Funds had "been consistently oversubscribed by more than 100% of the funds available".
This year, the council has $300,000 available for Eco Fund general grants, $100,000 for sustained rabbit management, $50,000 for water quality projects, $100,000 for biodiversity enhancement on protected private land, $50,000 for native planting following pest control — and the new large-scale biodiversity grants of $300,000.
To be eligible for the new large-scale biodiversity grant a project must address biodiversity outcomes, be in a range of $50,000 and $150,000 and be completed by June 2025, Mrs Caldwell said.
The new large-scale grants fund was created after several requests came to the council through previous long-term and annual plan processes, she said.
Including the large-scale biodiversity grants with the Eco Fund process made sure "how we allocate our funding to projects is fair and contestable".
Since the Eco Fund was launched in 2018, 133 projects had received grants, totalling $1.71 million, she said.
Applications for this year open on March 1.
In last year’s Eco Fund funding round, 49 applications sought a total of $1,173,509 from only $568,000 available.
— Staff reporter