[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 71 (Friday, April 11, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19867-19868]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-7648]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service


Information Collection Sent to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for Approval; OMB Control No. 1018-0123; International 
Conservation Grant Programs

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We (Fish and Wildlife Service) have sent an Information 
Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. This ICR 
revises OMB Control No. 1018-0123 to include our new Wildlife Without 
Borders Africa Grant Program. The ICR, which is summarized below, 
describes the nature of the collection and the estimated burden and 
cost. We 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.

DATES: You must submit comments on or before May 12, 2008.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments and suggestions on this ICR to the Desk 
Officer for the Department of the Interior at OMB-OIRA at (202) 395-
6566 (fax) or [email protected] (e-mail). Please provide a copy 
of your comments to Hope Grey, Information Collection Clearance 
Officer, Fish and Wildlife Service, MS 222-ARLSQ, 4401 North Fairfax 
Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 (mail); (703) 358-2269 (fax); or hope--
[email protected] (e-mail).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, contact Hope Grey by mail, fax, or e-mail (see 
ADDRESSES) or by telephone at (703) 358-2482.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    OMB Control Number: 1018-0123.
    Title: International Conservation Grant Programs.
    Service Form Number(s): 3-2338.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Domestic and nondomestic Federal, State, and local 
governments; nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations; public and 
private institutions of higher education; and any other organization or 
individual with demonstrated experience deemed necessary to carry out 
the proposed project.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
    Frequency of Collection: Annually.

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                                   Number of annual    Number of annual   Completion time per    Annual burden
            Activity                  respondents          responses            response             hours
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Grant Application (cover page                   539*                 539  12 hours...........              6,468
 and narrative).
Report (mid-term and final).....                126*                 252  30 hours...........              7,560
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    Totals......................                 665                 791  ...................             14,028
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    *Of the 539 applicants, we estimate that 137 will be domestic and 
402 will be nondomestic. Of the 126 grantees submitting reports, we 
estimate that 32 will be domestic and 94 will be nondomestic.
    Abstract: The Division of International Conservation awards grants 
funded under the:
    (1) African Elephant Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4201-4245).
    (2) Asian Elephant Conservation Act of 1997 (16 U.S.C. 4261).
    (3) Great Apes Conservation Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-411).
    (4) Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994 (16 U.S.C. 5306).
    (5) Marine Turtle Conservation Act (Pub. L. 108-266).

[[Page 19868]]

    (6) Wildlife Without Borders Programs - Mexico, Latin America and 
the Caribbean, and Russia.
    OMB has approved the information collection associated with the 
above grants and assigned control number 1018-0123. We have asked OMB 
to approve our proposed information collection associated with the 
Africa Grant Program, which will be our newest area of focus under the 
Wildlife Without Borders programs.
    Africa's magnificent wildlife resources are under increasing 
pressure from human activities. The proposed Africa grant initiative 
aims to provide training opportunities for African conservationists, 
educators, and policymakers to strengthen wildlife management in and 
around protected areas. For the purpose of this fund, protected areas 
are defined as sites that are publicly or privately owned with 
recognized legal status accorded by national, provincial, or local 
government, containing primarily unmodified natural systems managed for 
long-term protection. Examples include: national parks, forest 
reserves, buffer zones, community reserves, and privately held land 
conservancies. Of particular interest are projects that provide 
training to:
    (1) Raise capacity in and around protected areas to mitigate the 
impact of extractive industries, climate change, human /wildlife 
conflict, illegal trade in bushmeat, and/or wildlife disease.
    (2) Strengthen the administrative capacity (human resource 
management, financial management, vehicle and facility maintenance, 
grant writing and project implementation, community outreach and 
education, conflict resolution, and coalition building) of protected 
areas.
    (3) Strengthen university, college, and other conservation training 
programs that address protected area management.
    (4) Strengthen decisionmakers' knowledge of concepts relevant to 
protected area legislation, policy, and finance and the importance of 
harmonizing these with other national sectoral policies.
    By providing wildlife professionals with opportunities for 
training, we can help empower a generation of local people to address 
key conservation issues such as the threat to wildlife from extractive 
industries, illegal hunting, human/wildlife conflict, and wildlife 
disease.
    Applicants submit proposals for funding in response to Notices of 
Funding Availability that we will publish on Grants.gov. We plan to 
collect the following information:
    (1) Cover page with basic project details (FWS Form 3-2338).
    (2) Project summary and narrative.
    (3) Letter of appropriate government endorsement.
    (4) Brief curricula vitae for key project personnel.
    (5) Complete Standard Forms 424 and 424b (nondomestic applicants do 
not submit the standard forms).
    Proposals may also include, as appropriate, a copy of the 
organization's Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NIRCA) and any 
additional documentation supporting the proposed project.
    The project summary and narrative are the basis for this 
information collection request for approval. A panel of technical 
experts reviews each proposal to assess how well the project addresses 
the priorities identified by each program's authorizing legislation. As 
all of the on-the-ground projects funded by this program will be 
conducted outside the United States, the letter of appropriate 
government endorsement ensures that the proposed activities will not 
meet with local resistance or work in opposition to locally identified 
priorities and needs. Brief curricula vitae for key project personnel 
allow the review panel to assess the qualifications of project staff to 
effectively carry out the project goals and objectives. As all Federal 
entities must honor the indirect cost rates an organization has 
negotiated with its cognizant agency, we require all organizations with 
a NICRA to submit the agreement paperwork with their proposals to 
verify how their rate is applied in their proposed budget. Applicants 
may provide any additional documentation that they believe best 
supports their proposal.
    Comments: On October 30, 2007, we published in the Federal Register 
(72 FR 61363) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve our 
proposed collection of information for the African Grant Program. In 
that notice, we solicited comments for 60 days, ending on December 31, 
2007. We did not receive any comments in response to that notice.
    We again invite comments concerning this information collection on:
    (1) whether or not the collection of information is necessary, 
including whether or not the information will have practical utility;
    (2) the accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection 
of information;
    (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 
respondents.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal 
identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask OMB in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that it 
will be done.

    Dated: February 12, 2008
Hope Grey,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, Fish and Wildlife Service.
FR Doc. E8-7648 Filed 4-10-08; 8:45 am
BILLING CODE 4310-55-S