[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24667-24668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-10029]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service


Information Collection Submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for Approval Under the Paperwork Reduction Act; Division 
of International Conservation Requests for Proposals

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (We) has submitted the 
collection of information described below to OMB for approval under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act. An estimate of the 
information collection burden is included in this notice. If you wish 
to obtain copies of the proposed information collection requirement, 
related forms, and/or explanatory material, contact the Service 
Information Collection Clearance Officer at the address listed below.

DATES: OMB has up to 60 days to approve or disapprove information 
collection but may respond after 30 days. Therefore, to ensure maximum 
consideration, you must submit comments on or before June 3, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments on this information collection to the 
Desk Officer for the Department of the Interior at OMB-OIRA via 
facsimile or electronic mail: (202) 395-6566 (fax); or [email protected] (electronic mail). Please provide a copy of your 
comments to the Fish and Wildlife Service's Information Collection 
Clearance Officer via postal mail, electronic mail, or facsimile: 4401 
N. Fairfax Dr., MS 222 ARLSQ, Arlington, VA 22203; [email protected] (electronic mail); or (703) 358-2269 (fax).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request a copy of the information 
collection submission, explanatory information, and/or related forms, 
contact Anissa Craghead, Information Collection Clearance Officer, at 
703-358-2445 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: OMB regulations at 5 CFR 1320, which 
implement provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3501 et seq.), require that interested members of the public and 
affected agencies be given an opportunity to comment on information 
collection and record keeping activities (see 5 CFR 1320.8(d)). We have 
submitted a request to OMB to approve: (1) The revision of the 
collection of information for four of our multinational species 
conservation grant fund requests for proposals (Form numbers 3-2214 
through 3-2217), and (2) the addition of two new requests for proposals 
(Form numbers 3-2263, 3-2263S and 3-2264). We are requesting a three-
year term of approval for this information collection activity. Federal 
agencies may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to 
respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this collection of 
information is 1018-0123.
    Revisions to the currently approved requests for proposals include 
updating application forms to: (1) Comply with new Government-wide 
policy directing all funding programs to request Dun & Bradstreet 
registration from all applicants; (2) reformat to comply with new 
Government-wide policies prescribing a standard RFP format; (3) add 
additional instructions for applicants; (4) request from domestic 
applicants the submission of standard forms 424, 424a, 424b and DI 
2010; and (5) reformat the application cover page form to fit on one 
page. In addition, two new requests for proposals have been added to 
the information collection in order to meet our obligations under the 
requirements of the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife 
Preservation in the Western Hemisphere. Form 3-2263, one of the two new 
requests for proposals, and its associated form will be translated into 
Spanish for the convenience of our Mexican applicants. The Spanish 
version of that form is assigned form number 3-2263S. The new requests 
for proposals (forms 3-2263, 3-2263S, and 3-2264) are noted in the 
table below. In addition, this information collection is currently 
titled, ``Multinational Species Conservation Fund Requests for 
Proposals.'' Due to the addition of two new requests for proposals that 
are not part of the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, we are 
proposing to change the title of this information collection to 
``Division of International Conservation Requests for Proposals.''
    We published a notice inviting public comment on this information 
collection in the Federal Register on December 10, 2003 (68 FR 68939). 
The comment period lasted until February 9, 2004. We did not receive 
any comments during the comment period. In addition to the Federal 
Register notice, the Division of International Conservation solicited 
comments from several previous applicants related to: the clarity of 
the submission instructions; the estimated length of time to complete a 
submission; and any suggestions for improving the documents. The 
comments received included: (1) A suggestion to define a length limit, 
font size, font type, paper size, and margin sizes for the narrative 
portion of each proposal; (2) a suggestion to rearrange the contents of 
the Request for Proposals; (3) positive support for the development of 
an online fillable cover page form; and (4) confirmation that 
increasing our estimate of hours to complete a request to 12 hours was 
appropriate and more accurate. We did not make any changes based on the 
comments received. In the case of item (1), we did not choose to 
restrict items such as paper size or font type as our non-domestic 
applicants do not always have access to letter-size paper and/or access 
to computers that would allow conformity to our word processing 
standards. In addition, our proposal requests range drastically in the 
amounts requested and in complexity of work to be conducted. For this 
reason, we did not choose to limit the length of the narrative. 
Regarding item (2), we followed the new standard proposal format and 
standard data elements as prescribed by OMB for posting Federal 
financial assistance funding opportunities and did not consider 
ourselves responsible for considering public comment on the prescribed 
format. This notice provides an additional 30 days in which to comment 
on the information collection.
    The information obtained from the first four requests for proposals 
listed below will be used to select conservation projects for grant 
funding in accordance with the criteria in several Acts of Congress. 
The Acts of Congress include the African Elephant Conservation Act, as 
amended (16 U.S.C. 4201-45), the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act, 
as amended (16 U.S.C. 5301-06), the Asian Elephant Conservation Act (16 
U.S.C. 4261-4266), and the Great Ape Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 6301-
6303). The information obtained from the final two requests for 
proposals will be used to select conservation projects for grant 
funding in accordance with the U.S. Government's obligations under the 
Western Hemisphere Convention, and authorized by the Endangered Species 
Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531-44). The following table lists 
the requests for proposals, with their respective burden estimates, 
that we submitted to OMB for approval under the Paperwork Reduction 
Act.

[[Page 24668]]



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                                                                  Estimated time   Total annual    Total annual
  Name of request for proposals (RFP)          Form number          to complete      responses     burden hours
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African Elephant Conservation Fund RFP  3-2214..................              12              60             720
Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund  3-2215..................              12              70             840
 RFP.
Asian Elephant Conservation Fund RFP..  3-2216..................              12              50             600
Great Ape Conservation Fund RFP.......  3-2217..................              12              60             720
Wildlife Without Borders-Mexico RFP*..  3-2263 3-2263S..........              12              40             480
Wildlife Without Borders-Latin America  3-2264..................              12              55            660
 & the Caribbean RFP*.
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*Note: These are new forms.

    Title: Division of International Conservation Requests for 
Proposals.
    OMB Number: 1018-0123.
    Service Form Numbers: 3-2214 through 3-2217, 3-2263, 3-2263S and 2-
2264.
    Frequency of Collection: Annually.
    Description of Respondents: Foreign governments; domestic and 
foreign non-governmental organizations and individuals.
    Total Annual Responses: 335 responses.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,020 hours.
    We again invite comments concerning this collection on: (1) Whether 
the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance 
of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of 
burden on the public; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on those who are to 
respond.

    Dated: April 27, 2004.
Anissa Craghead,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 04-10029 Filed 5-3-04; 8:45 am]
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