The ECO Fund allows applications from unincorporated groups, which mean that you don’t have to apply under the umbrella of an organisation. As an unincorporated organisation, if you are successful with your application, you are highly likely to be required to open a bank account under your organisation’s name for the funds to be transferred to your organisation.  

A project from a company that will not result in a commercial or private gain may be eligible.

If you are a farmer and your land is owned through a trust, you are able to apply to ECO Fund for the biodiversity enhancement on protected private land or the critical source area management on private land.

Your project site can be on land managed by a district/city council, or any government agency such as LINZ or DOC, if your application is for the following funds: 

• Large-scale biodiversity projects 
• General (on-ground and education) 
• Sustained rabbit management 
• Weed removal and revegetation 

If you lease Crown land under, for example a pastoral lease, you can apply for the following funds, if you meet the eligibility criteria: 

• Biodiversity enhancement on protected private land 
• Critical source area management on private land 

For most people ‘pest plants’ and ‘weeds’ mean the same thing. When it comes to biosecurity, all pest plants are weeds but not all weeds are pest plants. A weed is a plant in an environment humans think it shouldn’t be in, and is seen to be a nuisance.  

A pest plant is a weed that meets certain criteria for a plan of action to be put against it in the Regional Pest Management Plan and is considered a biosecurity, economic or environmental risk. Find out more here. 

The occupier of a site must manage pests in accordance with the rules of the Regional Pest Management Plan. Because this is a regulatory requirement, funding cannot be used for pest plant management. 

For an application to be eligible, you must include a copy of the management agreements and/or written permissions that allow your project to take place on the project site. This is to ensure that you have the appropriate permissions prior to commencing any work.  

For a project on public land, this could be an agreement with DOC, LINZ, ORC, or your local council.  

For a project on private land: 

• By stating that you have written permission, you warrant that you have undertaken reasonable endeavours to gain permission from all owners and occupiers of the land relevant to this application and know of no objections to the activities proposed. 
• If an owner gives permission, then it is their responsibility to liaise with any occupiers. 
• If an occupier has permission to carry out activities, then they should not be required to provide landowner permission for each individual application. 

Prior to getting in touch with the landowner, you should have a clear idea of your project, including your project objectives. The geography of the site may mean that you need to adapt your activities and methods to achieve your objectives on site. As part of gaining approval for your project to happen on the project site, you may wish to discuss: 

• Who can access the site (volunteers or contractors)  
• How they are allowed to access the site (including access way and parking), 
• When they can access the site, e.g. what time of the year, week, day. This may be for an agreed timeframe that encompasses the duration of your project, on weekdays only, between 9am and 5pm; it may be following a phone call, there may be restrictions such as when cattle  are out of the paddock or working around lambing activities). 
• Where they can access the property 
• Health and safety risks. Identify specific H&S hazards on the site, assess these and plan to mitigate and control them.  
• If you are proposing introduced pest control methods, check and agree with the landowner on what is acceptable, e.g. herbicides, lures and traps. Both you and the landowner must have a common understanding of the methods that you plan to use for your project.  
• To future-proof your project, discuss with the landowner the plan to maintain the benefits of the project, e.g. who will do what. 

Obtain the landowner’s permission in writing and include this in your ECO Fund application.  

The landowner’s written permission does not need to be a complex document. It needs to include: 

• The name of the landowner 
• The legal description and address of the site 
• A description of what is permitted (e.g. activity, use of chemicals, access) and conditions 
• The landowner signature 
• The date the agreement is signed  
• Ideally, also include the signature of the representative of the applicant, demonstrating that this is an agreement between two parties. 

Applications are assessed based on their merit. If the remaining funds are insufficient for the next highest-scoring application, the Assessment Panel may allocate the leftover money to a discrete part of a project that can operate independently. For instance, this could be a standalone component of the project or funding for the first year of a multi-year project.  

The Assessment Panel is unlikely to fund a project if there is uncertainty about the impact of a reduced budget on the overall project. For example, a group could seek additional funding, reduce the project's scope by eliminating some actions, or scale down the project. This would mean the Assessment Panel is not evaluating the project as originally described in the application. 

Yes, you are eligible to apply for ECO Fund even if you are not GST-registered. If your application is  successful, you will not be able to invoice us for the GST amount. If you have included quotes with your application that clearly show that a GST component will be incurred, we may add the GST cost to the amount granted, to help you cover the GST that will need to be paid (e.g. purchase of materials or contractor fees).  

Absolutely, we strongly encourage applicants to discuss their project with staff prior to applying to ECO Fund. We can also answer any question you may have about the process. Contact us here. When contacting us, a description of your project will help answer any question you may have. 

Our assessment criterion for 'Special Biodiversity values' is based on biodiversity priorities. These priorities have been informed by work undertaken by ORC and specialists familiar with Otago ecosystems. This resulted in a ‘tiered’ system of relative priority. The guidance below comes from the report resulting from this work: Spatial prioritisation to inform indigenous biodiversity management in the Otago region.

First tier:

• Threatened naturally uncommon ecosystems,
• Habitats of threatened taxa endemic to Otago, and
• Habitats of Nationally Critical species
• Biodiversity loss in this tier could equate to loss from New Zealand as a whole, thus these regional priorities align closely with national biodiversity priorities.

Second tier:

• All other naturally uncommon ecosystems and
• ‘Unnaturally rare’ ecosystems, particularly those that are most depleted from their historical extent.
• For example, ecosystems with less than 30% of their historical extent remaining might be categorised as ‘unnaturally rare’ and those with less than 10% remaining as ‘most depleted’

Third tier: 

• All other ecosystem types and species’ habitats, with an emphasis on sites with multiple biodiversity values that also meet other criteria as described.
• For example, sites with greater vulnerability to biodiversity loss, such as sites in land environments with less than 20% indigenous vegetation cover remaining or indigenous ecosystems and habitats in lowland areas (as described in Walker et al. 2021), would benefit particularly from active management.

This general funding category accepts applications for projects that include any/all of:

• an on-ground component
• projects for education / capacity building type projects
• ex-situ (supporting conservation outside of natural habitats)

A community programme area is an area where collective action to manage rabbits is undertaken. There is no obligation for the applicant / group who is undertaking this work to be pre-registered with ORC to be eligible. 

Protected land can be land with: 

• A QEII covenant 
• A Ngā Whenua Rāhui kawenata 
• A Significant Natural Area that is included in your local District Plan 
• A Regionally Significant Wetland identified in one of the regional plans. 

Where pest plant control is required for compliance with the ORC Regional Pest Management Plan 2019 (the RPMP), costs associated with this activity are not eligible under ECO Fund. For such a project, you will only be able to apply for revegetation costs.

Your application will need to explain what pest plant control has happened on the project site to date or how you are planning to manage pest plant control prior to revegetating the project site (i.e. pest plant(s), timeline, who will fund the pest plant control activity).

Note: some pest plant control may not be regulated by the RPMP. Please contact us if you are unsure or need more details.

Costs associated with weed removal and revegetation are both eligible as a combined project activity.

If your application is only seeking funds for native planting, you will need to explain what weed removal has happened on the project site to date or how you are planning to remove weeds prior to revegetating the project site (i.e. description of weeds), timeline, who will fund weed removal costs.

If your application is only seeking funds for weed removal, you will need to explain how you intend to maintain the project gains and return the site to natural vegetation (such as a restoration / rehabilitation / natural regeneration plan).

You will need both an individual AND an applicant account, even if you are applying as an individual. 

1. Click on Register and apply to ECO Fund.
2. Register as an individual so that you get a password.
3. Register your organisation/yourself (if registering as an individual) as the applicant.

Note: As this is a new platform, past applicants still need to register on this new platform.

This year, our ECO Fund online application form has moved to a new platform, which allows more than one person to view or update an application. You could use this option for example to share the application with the applicant for them to review it, prior to it being submitted or to allow more than one person within your company to access the application.

The process with our new grant management system is:

1. A person will need to register to our client portal, record their details.
2. They will then need to create an organisation account (or applicant account).
3. They can then invite new contacts who can gain access to the application.

To invite additional persons to access the organisation’s account, go to your organisation’s account (in the image below, the name of the applicant is ‘Test environment’), on the top right corner of the screen:

Then, click on Account Details. A new page opens.

Click on Contacts:

A new page opens. Click on ‘Create Contact’

You have the option to give the new contact different user rights, amongst account administrator, general user and basic user.

From 2025 we moved ECO Fund to a new platform. This means if you have previously applied to ECO Fund those login details (including email address) won't work. Please register with a new personal account.

If you are still having issues, get in touch.