IUCN and UNEP Open $7.5 Million in Grants for Ecosystem-Based Climate Adaptation

The Global Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Fund, co-led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), announced up to $7.5 million in new grant funding on Finance Day at the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), held in Mongolia in late August 2026.

Two new funding calls

The announcement introduces the Fund’s eighth small-size grants call alongside its first-ever medium-size grants opportunity. Applications for the small-size grants will be accepted from 28 September to 26 October 2026, while the medium-size grants call will run from 12 October to 16 November 2026. The Fund is financed through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

What the grants will fund

According to IUCN, the two calls for proposals are intended to accelerate nature-based solutions that are innovative, scalable and investable, strengthening climate resilience while advancing ecosystem restoration. Organisers said the funding round aims to build institutional capacity, generate evidence of what works, improve investment readiness, and help communities and governments scale up ecosystem-based adaptation approaches, such as restoring degraded land, wetlands and forests to buffer against climate shocks.

Why It Matters

Holding the announcement at a desertification summit underscores a growing view among climate and conservation agencies that restoring ecosystems is not separate from adaptation policy but central to it. For communities facing land degradation and water scarcity, grants that help move promising local projects toward a scale that attracts further investment could determine whether nature-based defences against climate change spread beyond pilot programmes. The addition of a medium-size grants category, alongside the Fund’s existing small grants, is meant to give successful pilot projects a route to further funding rather than leaving them to compete for a fresh, separate award.