Program Overview
Letter of Intent Submission Deadline: November 26, 2024, 3:00pm ET
The Weston Family Foundation is open to new and innovative ways to significantly advance conservation and stewardship in northern Canada.
The Northern Conservation Program aims to support projects that will deliver tangible, realistic results for biodiversity conservation, and demonstrate how ongoing stewardship of conserved lands will be accomplished. The Foundation recognizes that Indigenous communities are critical planners and stewards of northern ecosystems, and as such we welcome and encourage projects that are Indigenous-led or Indigenous-partnered.
The outcomes of the Northern Conservation Program are:
- Protect/Conserve: An increase in conserved northern land and ocean areas that are of high value for biodiversity or for resisting or adapting to climate change
- Manage/Steward: An increase in northern land and ocean areas that are governed and stewarded with ecologically and culturally sustainable policies and practices that support nature conservation and the protection of biodiversity.
Successful projects will focus on:
- the establishment of land and ocean protected and conserved areas
- stewardship measures that maintain conservation of northern biodiversity in protected or conserved areas.
Projects must demonstrate that they take place in one or both of the “Areas of High Value for Biodiversity,” being:
- areas of significantly high value for northern biodiversity; or
- areas that are of high value for resisting or mitigating the impacts of climate change and/or providing options for wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate change.
Please refer to the Program Details for more information.
Funding available per project: a minimum of $450,000 to a maximum of $1,500,000 CAD per project. We are aiming for average grant sizes of $750,000.
Important dates:
Information Webinars:
- October 16 at 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. ET
- October 23 at 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. ET
Letter of Intent deadline: November 26, 2024 at 3:00 p.m.
Proposal deadline: February 18, 2025 3:00 p.m. ET (estimated)
Award announcement: Spring 2025
For more information about this new program, including project details, applicant eligibility, and scientific or geographic scope, please review the documents below.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any inquiries related to the program. You are welcome to send questions to the Northern inbox, northern@westonfoundation.ca.
Relevant documents:
Watch the Northern Conservation Program webinar here: