Welcome to The GEF Small Grants Programme

Women, Culture, and Territory: Safeguarding biodiversity by protecting ancestral culture in Colombia

LISTEN TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER The Bajo Guapi and Río Guají Afro-Colombian communities live in the Chocó Bioregion, a major biodiversity hotspot. Their collective territories thrive due to their strong cohesion and robust self-governance. Acts of violence from encroaching outsiders, and the new economic and social dynamics that they introduce, have led to displacement, which in turn weakens ancestral practices that conserve biodiversity and sustain life in these communities. In particular, the women of the ...

BREATHE COLOMBO BREATHE: Conserving the wetlands which breathes life into the city of Colombo

LAST REMAINING HAVENS 70-year-old Indrapala Gamarachchi looks out ov...

Ancestral Ingenuity: Harnessing traditional knowledge and innovation in Morocco, conservation & livelihoods flourish

In Morocco, conserving unique biodiversity relies on the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities who live in direct contact with nature. ...

Our Mission

Established in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF Small Grants Programme embodies the very essence of sustainable development by "thinking globally acting locally". By providing financial and technical support to projects that conserve and restore the environment while enhancing people's well-being and livelihoods, SGP demonstrates that community action can maintain the fine balance between human needs and environmental imperatives.