2020 ENVIVA FOREST CONSERVATION FUND REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
2020 Enviva Forest Conservation Fund
Request for Proposals
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 22, 2019)
Greenville, SC and Bethesda, MD – The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today released a new Request for Proposals for the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund (the Fund). Up to $500,000 is available for 2020 grants to protect bottomland hardwood and other wetland forests in northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia.
This is the fifth cycle of a $5 million, 10-year program launched by Enviva Holdings, LP (Enviva) and the Endowment in 2015. Not-for-profit organizations, government agencies and tribes are eligible to apply for grants. The deadline for proposals is January 24, 2020. The RFP and additional materials are available on the Endowment’s website.
“The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund continues to support the protection of bottomland hardwoods and wetland forests that are critical to supporting biodiversity, community resiliency, outdoor recreation, and clean water within Virginia and North Carolina. Unfortunately, bottomland hardwood forests are continuously threatened by land conversion, altered hydrology, invasive species, and the impact of climate change. The Fund provides critically important funding in support of priorities identified by natural resources agencies and leading conservation organizations,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the Endowment.
Since its inception in 2015, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has supported a total of 17 projects with over $2.0 million dollars invested. Once completed, these projects will protect approximately 24,000 acres across North Carolina and Virginia. These protected forests help provide a clean drinking water source, act as a buffer to infrastructure during storms, and provide critical habitats for many species of wildlife, while at the same time providing jobs and economic opportunity for rural families and private landowners.
“Four years into this very important initiative, we are happy to have helped conserve over 15,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forests, and we’re on track to meeting the 35,000-acre goal we established at the start of the program,” said Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Enviva. “Southern bottomland hardwoods and wetland forests not only protect wildlife and water quality, they are a critical component to the fight against climate change and it’s rewarding to know that we’re doing our part to help preserve special places in the woods that should remain so.”
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For more information contact:
Alicia Cramer (205-792-8650) alicia@runslikeclock.work
About the Endowment
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities. To learn more about The Endowment, please visit our website, www.usendowment.org.
About Enviva
Enviva is the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, a renewable energy source used to generate electricity and heat. We produce our pellets at plants in the Southern U.S. and supply them to electric power plants in the United Kingdom and continental Europe that previously were fueled by coal, enabling them to reduce their lifetime carbon emissions by about 80 percent. We make our pellets using sustainable practices that protect Southern forests. We employ more than 1,000 people and support many other businesses in the rural South.
Enviva conducts its activities primarily through two entities: Enviva Partners, LP, a publicly-traded master limited partnership (NYSE: EVA), and Enviva Development Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned private company. To learn more about Enviva, please visit our website, www.envivabiomass.com.
