Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) - Small Grants Program

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Enriched – · Found: 2026-03-13 16:39

International alliance offering competitive small grants to member organizations for ghost gear collection, recycling, and capacity building projects. 2025 recipients selected from global applicants. Projects support end-of-life gear recovery, training in upcycling, and community engagement in coastal areas. Flexible funding for developing regions.

Source: https://www.ghostgear.org

Funding Details

Funder: Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI)
Funding Goal: Fund projects addressing abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG/ghost gear) globally, including collection, recovery, end-of-life recycling, upcycling, capacity building workshops, community engagement, data collection, and awareness-raising among coastal fishing communities.
Funding Amount: Small grants; amounts not specified on website. Past recipients indicate modest project funding for capacity building, community workshops, and data collection activities.
Deadline: Periodic annual round; 2024 and 2025 recipients were selected; next round timing not specified on website (periodic)
How to Apply: Applications through GGGI membership and small grants process. Interested organisations should join or be a GGGI member and watch for small grant announcements at ghostgear.org.
Target Region: Global - projects confirmed in North America, Central/South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania
Contact: ghostgear.org/contact
Last Checked: 2026-05-07 02:08

Application Checklist

Eligibility

Applicant organisation should be a GGGI member or willing to join
Global applicants welcome; projects must benefit coastal fishing communities

Project Scope

Project must address ghost gear through collection, recycling, capacity building, or data collection

Required Documents

Annual round: monitor ghostgear.org for open call announcements
Provide project plan with measurable outcomes related to ghost gear reduction

Constraints

Grants are small — suitable for capacity building and community workshops, not infrastructure

Summary

The Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) is a cross-stakeholder alliance of fishing industry actors, private sector companies, NGOs, academic institutions, and governments working to address the problem of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), commonly known as ghost gear. Through its small grants programme, GGGI provides competitive funding to member organisations for practical projects addressing ghost gear prevention, removal, recycling, and capacity building. The programme's thematic scope is exclusively focused on ghost gear: end-of-life gear collection and recycling (EOL), gear removal from ocean and coastal environments, predictive models for gear loss, capacity building workshops for fishing communities, data collection on ghost gear volumes and impacts, and outreach and education. Eligible activities include community workshops with fishing communities, technical assessments of gear loss causes, collection and upcycling/recycling of derelict fishing gear, policy dialogues for ghost gear prevention, and pilot projects for gear marking and retrieval systems. The geographic scope is global. Past recipients include organisations in Bangladesh (Asia), North America (United States, Mexico, Canada), Europe, Africa, and Oceania. The programme deliberately funds across regions to build a global evidence base. Eligible applicants are primarily GGGI member organisations — NGOs, research institutions, fishing cooperatives, and community groups. Non-member organisations may need to join GGGI before applying. Eligibility for each small grant round is announced through GGGI communications. Grant amounts are small (exact figures not published), intended to support capacity building and pilot projects rather than large infrastructure investments. Annual grant rounds are announced periodically. Applicants should monitor the GGGI website and become GGGI members to be notified of open rounds.

Historical Context

GGGI is a cross-stakeholder alliance founded with support from World Animal Protection. Small grants programme has awarded grants in 2024 and 2025 across multiple regions including Bangladesh, North America, and Europe. The initiative runs signature projects like NANCI (North American Net Collection Initiative) and smaller capacity-building grants globally.

Sources

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