Criteria for Inclusion of Land Acquisition, Stewardship and/or Restoration Projects in CRI’s Geographic Funds

Unless otherwise specifically required by a donor, or by the terms of an administrative or judicial consent order or settlement, and agreed to by CRI, the following criteria will be used to screen potential projects for inclusion in a geographic fund and for eligibility for grants from a geographic fund:

• The project must be sponsored and undertaken by a bona fide non-profit conservation group which has sufficient technical and financial ability to complete the project;
  
  
• The project must be eligible for matching public funds (e.g. funds from Green Acres, the SADC, or another federal, state, regional county, municipal or governmental agency);
  
  
• The project must include an adequate legal mechanism to insure the permanent protection of the subject tract of land;
  
  
• Preference will be given to projects which would protect, enhance or restore a tract which would advance one or more of the following objectives:
  
  
  • to connect existing permanently protected tracts;
    
  • to protect a key parcel in a planned assemblage of tracts as part of a wider project area or greenway;
    
  • to provide additional protection for threatened ecosystems or natural communities; one or more threatened or endangered species; or watershed lands or public water supplies;
    
  • to provide or improve reasonable and managed public access to permanently protected open space;
    
  • to protect a critical mass of prime farmland or priority agricultural soils;
    
  • to promote partnerships among public and private conservation organizations;
    
  • to demonstrate the feasibility of innovative methods of land acquisition, management or restoration;
    
  • to provide or enhance open space or community parks in urban areas of the state;
    
  • to restore and permanently protect natural resources which have been degraded by past human activity; and
    
  • to promote consistency with the objectives and provisions of regional land use management plans, including but not limited to the State Development and Redevelopment Plan; the comprehensive management plan for the pinelands area, the Garden State Greenways Project; and other similar regional public or non-profit plans.
    
    
• Please contact us for an application to feature a project in one of our geograpic funds.