OpportunityTitle: Fostering Collaborations across the North American Arctic
Description: The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Headquarters Region 7 intends to award a single source Cooperative Agreement as authorized by 505 DM 2.14 (B) to The Nature Conservancy, Anchorage, Alaska. This notice is not a request for proposals and the Government does not intend to accept proposals. Award will be made 15 days after this notice. PURPOSE: This project addresses the Arctic Landscape Cooperative&#239;&#191;&#189;s (LCC) need to identify potential Canadian partners and to identify specific overlapping goals, objectives and geographic interest between the Arctic LCC and those potential partners. The project objectives are to: Provide information about the Arctic LCC to potential Canadian partners; initiate contact and help build relationships with those potential partners; summarize current and planned climate-related work and other areas of overlapping interest with the Arctic LCC; and identify the top six to eight most appropriate potential Canadian partners for the Arctic LCC. REASON FOR SINGLE SOURCE: Unique Qualifications &#239;&#191;&#189; The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is uniquely qualified to conduct this work by virtue of their pre-existing strong collaborative ties with all potential Arctic LCC partners. This group has a long history of addressing conservation issues with these entities in Canada. In establishing ties between the Arctic LCC and these Canadian groups, it is essential that a trusted third party work on our behalf to pave the way for establishing new relationships between the Canadian groups and the Arctic LCC, an unknown entity to most of these potential Canadian partners. TNC will contact all appropriate Pan-Arctic (e.g., Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna), Canadian federal and Territorial agencies, First Nations entities, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and other entities operating within the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This project capitalizes on the unique ability of The Nature Conservancy to reach out to potential Canadian partners and to identify areas of overlapping goals and objectives between the Arctic LCC and potential Canadian partners. Because The Nature Conservancy works across the Alaska/Canada border through the Northern Climate Change Program, and has staff located in Anchorage who actually work for TNC in Canada, they are the only organization suited to do this work in the time allotted. The Conservancy has staff based and working throughout Alaska and Canada, including staff who work in both geographies and promote cross-border conservation efforts (including employees in Yellowknife, NWT). Current and recent cross-border projects include an analysis of the cumulative impacts of development and climate change on caribou in the Arctic, an ecoregional assessment of the Alaska-Yukon-Arctic region http://east.tnc.org/assessment/79/ , with the University of Alaska the development of regional best-fit, downscaled climate data for the Yukon and Northwest Territories which is dovetailed with Alaska&#239;&#191;&#189;s climate data, a biome shift analysis for Alaska, Yukon, NWT and Nunavut, and a coarse scale climate change vulnerability assessment of the Southeast Alaska/British Columbia coastal temperate rainforest region. TNC has more transboundary climate science capacity than any other Alaska NGO, and has more and better transboundary connections than any other NGO. The staff at TNC serving as PI for this project is, in particular, among the greatest and most respected transboundary climate science thinkers in North America. TNC staff&#239;&#191;&#189;s experience in Northern Canada is deep and well known in Canada&#239;&#191;&#189;s Northwest Territories across sectors (government, science and among the NGO community). TNC&#239;&#191;&#189;s expertise encompasses both boreal and far north ecosystems on both sides of the border. TNC staff is unexcelled in forging collaborative relationships with agency based scientists and is respected in both Canada and the U.S. for its scientific capacity in the northern regions of both the US and Canada. TNC ranks at the top of NGOs in climate science-related international collaboration in Canada and US. Their linkages to tribes and TEK is outstanding; something that is of utmost importance when working with arctic cultures.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: work
GrantorContactText: Richard Primmer &lt;br/&gt;Contract Specialist &lt;br/&gt;Phone 907-786-3611