Darwin Initiative: About Us

The Darwin Initiative is a UK Government grants scheme that supports communities to find just, scalable, and sustainable ways to conserve and restore nature while growing their economies and reducing poverty. It is one of the Biodiversity Challenge Funds (BCFs) – the collective name for three of the UK Government's competitive grants that also includes the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund and Darwin Plus, aimed at conserving biodiversity and safeguarding the environment for local people.

Successful Darwin Initiative projects are likely to:

• Facilitate changes that improve biodiversity conservation and reduce poverty
• Operate in ways that make change likely to last beyond external funding, including enhancing the capability and capacity of national and local partners and stakeholders
• Strengthen, promote, and use evidence to inform and scale changes
• Facilitate large-scale benefits for biodiversity and people, or test approaches that have the potential to deliver large-scale impact
• Demonstrate an understanding of GESI within their context, and effectively reflect this in their approach to deliver sustained outcomes

Since 1993, the Darwin Initiative has awarded over £289m to more than 1,370 projects across 159 countries.

For further information on the Darwin Initiative, see our Frequently Asked Questions.

For further information on the Biodiversity Challenge Funds, please follow the links provided below:

• Biodiversity Challenge Funds
• IWT Challenge Fund
• Darwin Plus

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