About the PRSGF

The Pastor Rice Small Grants Fund (PRSGF) is a community-oriented small grant facility, established by the Non-Timber Forest Products - Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP) to continue the legacy and in memory of Reverend Delbert Arthur Rice, who was one of the founding Board of Trustees of the organization. Pastor Rice was an American missionary who first arrived in the mountainous Brgy. Imugan, Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya, Northern Luzon, Philippines in the mid-1960s and stayed to live there with the Ikalahan indigenous community until his demise in 2014. He was an anthropologist, electrical engineer, educator and environmentalist. He was a champion for the Ikalahan tribe, and of sustainable upland ecosystems, which also laid the foundation for community-based forest management in the Philippines. He was also an awardee of Frédéric Ozanam for community service in 2014.

PRSGF, formerly Micro Grant Facility (MGF), has supported various community initiatives in South and Southeast Asia since 2007 through support from various donors such as Broederlijk Delen, Both ENDS/Rich Forests, Ecosystem Alliance, International Union for the Conservation of Nature - National Committee of The Netherlands (IUCN-NL), and the Samdhana Institute. The fund is being managed by NTFP-EP Asia through its Secretariat office in Manila.

In 2016-2020, PRSGF received funding from the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA). Under this portfolio, PRSGF has awarded around 170 grants to more than 100 women’s groups and women-led initiatives that strengthened the capabilities and unified grassroots groups to lobby and advocate for women’s rights and environmental justice agenda.

At present, PRSGF continues to receive support from GAGGA, as well as other partner organizations supporting the sustainable, community-based work of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in forested landscapes in Asia.

Grant Categories

Women and Just-Climate Actions

This grant is available to grassroots women and girls’ organizations in Indonesia and the Philippines, who plan to implement initiatives tackling the climate crisis while promoting gender equality.

In many IPLCs, grassroots women are best positioned and in the forefront of action to protect the environment, yet their efforts are less recognized and are underfunded. Through NTFP-EP’s small grants facility, we are bridging the gap and creating opportunities for women to participate and take up space in community-building, proposing solutions and alternatives to the problems they face. Earmarking funds for women’s actions has evidently increased their agency and leadership determining their own pathways for development. We acknowledge as well the significant role of women as knowledge bearers offering local and climate resilient solutions.

Through PRSGF, our previous work with grassroots women and girls in Southeast Asia has contributed to strengthening local women’s leadership, mobilisation, implementation, and advocacy skills in the areas of community conservation, sustainable livelihoods, natural resources management, food security and health. Local women-led CBOs improved their sustainable forest and watershed management and protection of natural resources within their respective territories. Training on L&A strategies bolstered the advocacy skills of women’s groups. They advocated on local environmental issues in which women were disproportionately impacted, such as destructive mega-developments in mining, hydropower dam development and palm oil, rubber, and other plantations. Working on NTFPs practices and L&A enhances the contribution and fair share of benefits for women in the sustainable management of forested landscapes and ecosystems, catalysing rural and Indigenous women’s collective power and voice to secure community forest rights, resources and sustainable livelihoods.

Indeed, allocating resources for them is our way of recognizing, scaling-up and facilitating spaces for women’s contributions to mitigate, adapt and reduce carbon emissions through their time-tested local and indigenous knowledge and practices on sustainable resource use, management and conservation



IPLCs and Effective NTFP Management

This grant is open to local and grassroots organizations in Southeast Asia, especially from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam, who are working to effectively manage and develop NTFPs and other resources inside their forested landscape.

IPLCs play a pivotal role in the sustainable management of forested landscapes, which is crucial for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. As a way to contribute to strengthening IPLCs to represent themselves, collaborate effectively with others, and build solidarity networks, NTFP-EP offers grant for local and grassroots organizations who are working to effectively manage and develop NTFPs and other resources inside their forested landscape.

NTFP-EP will support new or continuing initiatives needing start-up capital and for meeting urgent needs of established organizations (facing threats, unexpected opportunities or finding themselves with a gap in funding support). The grant is also expected to better mainstream ecosystem and biodiversity management in the work of grassroots and civil society organizations and thereby demonstrating how healthy ecosystems can contribute to poverty alleviation. Reversing degradation can further support goals for subsequent, sustainable use and conservation of ecosystems.

Some activities that can be supported by this grant includes:

Resource management (RM) – enhances or revives sustainable traditional practices, adapts local RM to changing circumstances, improves capacity for monitoring and RM planning, shares important learning.

Tenure – claims for land rights/ access to forest lands, supports processing and/or solving territorial claims of communities.

Livelihood – improves income situation through fair trade of forest products from community-based enterprises and has potential to become self-sustaining, addresses possible impacts on the resource.

Response to threats – raises awareness on the impact of destructive developments among communities directly affected or within society at large, undertakes effective lobby to halt these development, monitors and enforces regulations.

Climate change mitigation and adaptation – builds resilience among forest-based groups in the face of climate change, tests localized climate change adaptation interventions.

Quick Response Grants

The Quick Response Grants (QRG) are a flexible financing model created to provide timely and strategic support to Asian IPLCs Women and Men Environmental Human Rights Defenders (W/EHRDs) and their organizations.

The Quick Response Grants (QRG) are a flexible financing model created to provide timely and strategic support to IPLCs Women and Men Environmental Human Rights Defenders (W/EHRDs) and their organizations. QRG will range between $100 - $5,000 and will be given to support urgent activities that enable IPLCs W/EHRDs to address key safety and security issues or monitoring and documentation of environmental cases that require immediate reporting. Some examples of potential grants given are: supporting an IPLC W/EHRD to seek sanctuary or relocate due to security threats; obtain legal support to report an attack or to defend a W/EHRD who is sued; or install a new security camera system in the offices of an IPLC W/EHRD organization.

NTFP-EP will support new or continuing initiatives needing start-up capital and for meeting urgent needs of established organizations (facing threats, unexpected opportunities or finding themselves with a gap in funding support). The grant is also expected to better mainstream ecosystem and biodiversity management in the work of grassroots and civil society organizations and thereby demonstrating how healthy ecosystems can contribute to poverty alleviation. Reversing degradation can further support goals for subsequent, sustainable use and conservation of ecosystems.

The objective of this activity is to further increase the ability and security of IPLCs W/EHRDs and their organizations to be able to conserve and defend their ancestral forested landscapes and access legal support, when needed. For QRG, the call for proposals, selection criteria and process will be modified to fit the needed urgent response. The call will be open all-year round for women and men activists and IPLC members needing quick and urgent support to mitigate threats, and ensure their safety and security. Processing and approval of QRG request must be done within 72 hours from its request, while funds will be transferred within 3 weeks, at the maximum.

Application process requires the following:

  • Applicant writes to NTFP-EP Asia, addressed to the Executive Director, informing of his/her intent to access the grant
  • Budget request
  • Fund (bank) transfer information
  • Endorsement letter from a partner organization or NTFP office

Apply Now!

NTFP-EP Asia calls on community-based organizations, especially women or youth groups, doing initiatives in their forested landscapes, to submit their proposals to PRSGF Read More >

Stories

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    KPPL MAJU BERSAMA Kerinci Seblat Nattional Park (TNKS), Indonesia
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    Komunitas Peduli Lingkungan (LEPEMAWI) Timika, Wes Papua
  • Story from the Grantees
    Advancing Indigenous Women’s Rights (by ALUKUY Women's Organization)

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