Grants / Department of State / Bureau of International Narcotics-Law Enforcement

SFOP0008011: Handling of Live Animal Confiscations

Closed Closed June 11, 2021 Opportunity SFOP0008011 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Balanced Prosecution of Transnational Organized Crime Cases (OFOP0003790). Status: Closes November 9, 2026 (2 days left). It is in our archive of Bureau of International Narcotics-Law Enforcement notices from 2021.

• Award ceiling$1.0 million
• Award floor$300,000
• Expected awards2
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

U.S.-based non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NGOs); Foreign-based non-profits/non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Trans-National Crime awards averaged $1.3 million; this notice allows up to $1.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (62% over five years) went to nonprofits.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

Wildlife trafficking is a lucrative form of transnational organized crime (TOC) that has decimated populations of species, such as elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and more. Wildlife trafficking fuels corruption; threatens the rule of law, peace, and security; spreads disease; and destabilizes communities that depend on wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism revenues. Criminal organizations are profiting from this illicit trade, relying on their ability to exploit porous borders and weak institutions, and leveraging multilevel illicit networks of criminal intermediaries and government officials to move illegal wildlife from source to demand countries. INL aims to combat wildlife trafficking (CWT) through effective programming at the national, regional, and international levels. For this funding opportunity, INL intends to focus on the illegal trafficking of live animals. Frontline law enforcement officers seize two types of illegal wildlife products: 1. Body parts that have already been separated from the animal, such as tusks, horns, blood, claws, feathers, organs, hides, or scales; or 2. Live animals. The seizure of live animals in the illegal wildlife trade is common, given the high demand and high prices for these products. However, “living evidence” seized over the course of an investigation tends to have a high mortality rate in police custody. This is because law enforcement and justice sector in many countries: 1. Lack minimum standards for responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines to ensure the integrity of the chain of custody for live animals seized as evidence; and 2. Do not have the appropriate procedures in place for transferring custody of live animals to suitable facilities to ensure their safe quarantine until court proceedings conclude. In some jurisdictions, live animals must be produced in court to secure a conviction. INL will award at least one grant that provides training to address immediate capacity gaps (near-term outcomes) and technical assistance to improve laws and legal procedures to reduce the need for the use of live evidence in a court case (long-term outcomes). The ultimate goal of this program is to increase governments’ ability to CWT and disrupt the criminal organizations that perpetrate this heinous crime. 1. Priority Countries Applicants may propose work in one or more countries within Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Applicants may also propose work across multiple regions.

Category: Law, Justice and Legal Services.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, OFOP0003790, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.