North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is accepting applications for projects to fund under the North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action (NAPECA). Proposals must be submitted by 18 January 2024 and projects will start in June 2024.

The CEC established NAPECA to promote shared responsibility and stewardship for the environment by engaging and partnering with tribal nations, Indigenous Peoples and communities, including Indigenous governments, councils and organizations, local communities, academia and registered nongovernmental organizations in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Since 2010, NAPECA has been instrumental in fostering collaborative efforts to address pressing environmental challenges while promoting sustainable development and fostering cross-border cooperation. Through NAPECA, the CEC encourages model environmental initiatives that will help build long-term partnerships to improve environmental conditions at the community level and support local priorities. Examples of recent NAPECA projects can be found here.

Possible projects under this call for proposals
The CEC will support projects and partnerships that are led by or promote the active participation of Indigenous governments, organizations, communities and individuals in recognition of their Indigenous rights and knowledge systems pertaining to environmental decision-making. The projects must be inclusive and foster Indigenous leadership and self-determination. They may also support the development of solutions adapted to the needs, priorities and systems prevailing in the communities where they are implemented. Indeed, applying Indigenous Knowledge also implies recognition of and respect for Indigenous knowledge systems6 and, in many cases, shared jurisdiction on environmental activities and decisions. This recognition includes ways of life, relations to the spirits and natural world, the gender-based roles, modes of knowledge transmission
and decision-making, etc. It is not a requirement that the proposed project necessarily be implemented in Indigenous communities. Rather, the requirement is that the project be implemented in collaboration and partnership with one or more Indigenous partners. In the case of partnerships between Indigenous communities and other organizations, the intention is to promote a dialogue of knowledge that generates an interaction of respect and symmetry among actors with different knowledge systems. The “weaving” approach ensures that Indigenous science is brought together with western science through mutual respect, repatriation, relationship building, engagement activities, and the development of learning resources.

Projects are funded for a duration of 12 (twelve) to 24 (twenty-four) months.
The CEC encourages applicants to submit proposals up to C$185,000 and will consider additional funds (where available) for exceptional projects.
The CEC recognizes that a project can have a great impact at a low cost; therefore, no minimum grant amount has been established