Southwest Border Resource Protection Program | P19AS00057

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00057

The Southwest Border Resource Protection Program (SWBRPP) is a National Park Service funding opportunity run out of the NPS Intermountain Regional Office in Denver. Its purpose is to support projects that strengthen stewardship of natural and cultural resources along (or near) the US-Mexico international border, while also encouraging international cooperation, better public interpretation, and credible scientific research. The program is framed around real, on-the-ground resource impacts that have been documented in border-area parks and other desert Southwest park units, including damage associated with illegal cross-border activity. The opportunity emphasizes that these impacts are not just isolated incidents but landscape-scale problems, such as the creation of thousands of miles of unauthorized roads and trails, disruption of major ecological processes and wildlife movement, vandalism of historic places, and looting of archeological sites. In practical terms, the program aims to fund work that helps parks understand these impacts, respond to them, and communicate the significance of these shared resources to the public.

Funding is provided through cooperative agreements, meaning the National Park Service expects to be actively involved in shaping and overseeing the work rather than simply issuing a hands-off grant. Each selected project is authorized as a separate award, and each award comes with its own work plan and budget that are developed collaboratively between NPS and the partner organization. The opportunity is open not only to NPS units but also to a broad mix of partners, including educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, tribes, and local or state agencies. While eligibility is broad, applicants are strongly encouraged to build their proposals in close coordination with at least one of ten named NPS units near the border, signaling that projects should be grounded in real park priorities and implemented with direct park engagement.

The program supports three broad categories of work: research and documentation, protection and preservation, and education/interpretation/information sharing. Research and documentation can focus on cultural resources, such as identifying, researching, and evaluating archeological and historic sites, as well as preparing nominations for the National Register of Historic Places or National Historic Landmark status. It can also focus on natural resource issues, including wildlife habitat management, inventory and monitoring of invasive species, studying climate change impacts on endangered species, and assessing how border-related activities affect threatened and endangered species. Protection and preservation projects may address cultural resources by stabilizing, rehabilitating, or restoring historic structures, archeological sites, trails, and cultural landscapes, and by conserving museum or archival collections. For natural resources, protection and conservation activities can include reestablishing natural processes and ecological systems, monitoring resource damage associated with human development, protecting threatened and endangered species, developing integrated pest management plans, and restoring native vegetation and wildlife habitats, including removal of exotic species. Education and interpretation activities emphasize building shared capacity and improving communication, with examples such as student internship programs, workshops and training events, seminars and symposia, binational conferences, informational network gatherings, and the development of interpretive materials and public-facing programs.

The opportunity specifically highlights collaboration with the following ten parks and park units: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Big Bend National Park, Amistad National Recreation Area, Palo Alto National Historic Site, Padre Island National Seashore, Saguaro National Park, Tumacacori National Historical Park, Chamizal National Memorial, Coronado National Memorial, and Chiricahua National Monument. This list effectively signals the geographic focus of SWBRPP and the types of borderland settings involved, ranging from desert ecosystems and mountain “sky island” habitats to river corridors, coastal resources, and historically significant cultural sites.

From the published opportunity details, the funding opportunity title is “Southwest Border Resource Protection Program,” with Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00057, administered by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. It is categorized as a discretionary opportunity and uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument. The activity category is natural resources, and the CFDA number listed is 15.954. The opportunity (as posted) showed an award ceiling of $50,000, with an expectation of around 7 awards. The posting date was March 13, 2019, and the original closing date was April 15, 2019.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Southwest Border Resource Protection Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.954.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 13, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 15, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $50,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for P19AS00057

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