Reef conservation group in Oman receives $10,000 in funding

Energy Thursday 28/June/2018 12:13 PM
By: Times News Service
Reef conservation group in Oman receives $10,000 in funding

Muscat: Oman-based reef monitoring programme Biosphere Expeditions has received a USD10,000 grant from the Ford Motor Company as part of the latter’s CSR initiatives, the automobile company said in a statement on Thursday.

Biosphere Expeditions project has, to date, already trained 14 Omanis in reef check techniques, seeded a community-based reef monitoring programme, and resulted in the foundation of the Reef Check Oman organisation.

Ford Motor Company today handed over USD10,000 in grant money to the project as part of the 2017 Ford Motor Company Conservation and Environmental Grants initiative. Biosphere Expeditions was awarded the sum to assist in its capacity-building marine conservation civil society.

This is the fourth time Biosphere Expeditions has received a Ford Conservation and Environmental Grant for its continued exceptional work in the Musandam peninsula, amounting to $42,000 over the past six years.

In its 17 years of existence, the Ford Grants initiative has helped empower individuals and non-profit groups that are donating their time and efforts to preserve the environmental well-being of their communities in the Arab world, with a total of USD100,000 made available so far.

Ford Motor Company recently announced the launch of the 17th Conservation and Environmental Grants programme, with $105,000 being made available to the successful entries, which coincided with World Environment Day on June 5.

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day is “beating plastic pollution”, and Ford is increasing the total fund offering for 2018 with a $5,000 special category grant for the project that best displays a plan to tackle the scourge of plastic on our environment.

Individuals or organisations with on-going projects focused on any of the main areas of focus are invited to apply. The closing date for submissions is July 15, 2018 at 9pm AST (Arab Standard Time).