Following the Chair's Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting on 16 July, we are instituting a change to the way we handle project proposals.
Over the last 3 years we have been able to fund several small projects through donations made to the World Pheasant Association (WPA) which can only be used for PSG-endorsed field projects. We are anxious to ensure that these funds are used as effectively as possible, especially in implementing the programme of work that we have agreed in the 2000-04 Action Plan.
So that projects that are competing for these funds can be judged against eachother more easily, we have decided to make recommendations on WPA support ONLY at the twice-yearly CAC meetings, which are held in mid-January and mid-July. Really urgent project opportunities may be dealt with more immediately, but this will be a highly exceptional procedure.
Thus to be considered for partial or full funding through WPA at a PSG/CAC meeting, a project proposal normally has to be endorsed in writing, and in its final form agreed with the Chair, at least one month before the next CAC meeting: i.e. by December 15 and June 15.
As at present, proposals should be submitted to the Chair, and will immediately go out for independent confidential review. This will result in a decision on endorsement (endorse, refer for further work, or reject), within 6 weeks. Endorsed and referred proposals will need to be revised in view of reviewers' comments, and then resubmitted to the Chair for checking. Only when this stage is reached with an endorsement can a proposal go forward to the next available CAC meeting to be considered for funding support.
Thus in order to be confident of obtaining an endorsement and the possibility of WPA funding for a project, you should submit proposals (on the PSG form) by the end of September for the January CAC meeting, and by the end of March for the July CAC meeting.
Project proposals can be submitted at any time, but they will normally be processed in line with this timetable.
Please note that this is NOT an invitation to depend entirely on WPA funding for projects: these funds are limited and many projects are being proposed. The CAC expects to see that efforts are being made to obtain funds from other local, national or international sources, as detailed in Section 18 of the PSG Project Proposal Form. A lack of evidence for this may even be used as reason NOT to fund a project using WPA donations. You have been warned!
These details will appear on the PSG website in due course, as will the form and guidelines in several languages.
In making project proposals, please refer to the Action Plan project briefs (Chapter 4) and the Threatened Species Accounts (Chapter 3), and see where the gaps are at present by reference to the summary in Tragopan 16, pp.10-11 (March 2002). A project that addresses one or more of the targets set out in the Action Plan will always be given priority over those that do not in discussions about WPA funding at CAC meetings. They should also be easier to obtain funding for elsewhere.