Betty Petersen Conservation Fund
Inspiration: Betty Petersen (1943-2013) was one of the founders of Birders’ Exchange, a program to engage people in birding through donations of optic equipment and resources to organizations in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The program was first housed at the (then) Manomet Bird Observatory and later at the American Birding Association. For this work she was honored by an Argentine conservation group for “Ideas that Change the World” in 2006. Betty was behind multiple equipment donations to Caribbean researchers and projects, and coordinated a special Cuba fund initiated by National Book Award-winning author, Phillip Hoose. Nils Navarro’s wonderful book, the Endemic Birds of Cuba, was dedicated to Betty, as a way to acknowledge her important role in bird conservation and education. Wayne Petersen, Betty’s husband, and a group of close friends established the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund to continue her legacy of community conservation. The fund, managed by BirdsCaribbean since its inception in 2019, provides support to individuals or organizations headquartered in the Caribbean that work with local communities to protect and benefit from healthy bird populations.
Goal of the Award: The Betty Petersen Conservation Fund seeks to advance the conservation status of birds and habitats in the Caribbean region through projects that engage and empower communities and stakeholders to protect and benefit sustainably from their birds. Projects that engage local citizens and decision makers to alleviate threats and/or encourage sustainable use of threatened natural resources will receive priority for funding, as will projects that benefit high priority areas—such as Important Bird Areas or Key Biodiversity Areas—that are under serious threat.
Eligibility: Applications are invited from Individuals or organizations headquartered in the Caribbean (e.g., Undergraduate Students, Masters Students, Doctoral Students, Postdoctoral, Early Professionals, Established Professionals, Non-Professionals, Organizations/Governments). Applicants are encouraged to provide at least 1:1 matching funds toward the project cost. In-kind match qualifies. Proposals providing a higher match ratio may receive preference.
Use of Funds: The funds can be used to cover travel to field sites, living expenses in the field, stipends for assistants, or costs for equipment and supplies to conduct conservation projects. Examples of equipment and supplies include traps, cameras, automated recording units, nest boxes, etc. Funds cannot be used for salaries, other wages, or overhead fees.
Awardees will be required to submit a report to the BirdsCaribbean’s Grant Committee one year from the project start date, and a blog article about this work for our broader community. Two-year projects require a second annual report. We also encourage award recipients to present the results at the biennial International Conference of BirdsCaribbean, and publish in the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology. Presentations and publications are expected to acknowledge both the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund and BirdsCaribbean for support.
Check our pages, blog post and social media for announcements of when the fund is open for grant applications & for details of how to apply.
BirdsCaribbean’s general Grant Application Guidelines are available here.
Address your questions or inquiries to: info@birdscaribbean.org.
Please consider making a tax deductible contribution to the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund. Give generously. The more we put into the fund, the more we can give out each year. Thanks to all those that have contributed to the fund!
Past Betty Petersen Conservation Fund award winners:
| Project Year/s | Awardee | Project |
| 2023- 2024 | Mark Hulme | Facilitating community involvement in Pawi (Trinidad Piping-guan) research and conservation |
| 2023- 2024 | Lourdes Mugica Valdés PhD | Bird Conservation in the Botanical Garden |
| 2023- 2024 | Ines Lourdes Fernández Rodríguez | Reproductive management with artificial nests and its effect on the populations of Psittacidae in the Pico Cristal National Park. Cuba |
| 2023- 2024 | Josmar Marquez | Does Los Roques Archipelago continue to be a safe place for breeding colonies of Seabirds of the species Sula leucogaster, Sula sula, Puffinus heilmeire in the Caribbean? |
| 2023 | Yaro Rodríguez | Birdwatching movement in Cuba as a way to improve the knowledge of Cuban avifauna and promote the conservation efforts based on citizen science |
| 2023 | Anderson Jean | Ridgway’s Hawk Conservation and Education Project |
| 2023 | Nature Foundation St. Maarten | St. Maarten Birding and Ecotourism |
| 2019- 2022 | Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) | Black-capped Petrel Conservation Through Poverty Alleviation in a Haitian Community |
| 2019- 2022 | Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust | Engaging Local Communities in Reversing the Decline of the Endangered White-breasted Thrasher by Restoring Key Nesting Sites and Reducing the Impacts of Invasive Species |
| 2019- 2022 | The Peregrine Fund | A Holistic Approach to the Conservation of Critically Endangered Ridgway’s Hawk in Dominican Republic |