Conservation Partners Program 2023 RFP

In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Cargill, General Mills, Nestlé, and The J.M. Smucker Co., the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) will award competitive grants to accelerate the voluntary adoption of regenerative agriculture principles and conservation practices on private working lands in priority geographic areas. Grant recipients will provide technical assistance to interested farmers and ranchers to develop management plans, design and implement best practices, participate in Farm Bill programs, and share their experiences and lessons learned. This work enhances wildlife habitat, soil health, water quantity and quality, and carbon sequestration while providing important social and economic benefits to agricultural producers. Approximately $6.2 million in grant funding is available under this funding opportunity.

The Conservation Partners Program will fund projects that provide agricultural producers with technical assistance to adopt regenerative agriculture systems and conservation practices on their working lands. Grant recipients will hire or support field conservation professionals who will help producers develop and implement economically sound approaches that achieve positive environmental outcomes. 

Competitive projects will increase participation in Farm Bill programs as one way to advance regenerative agriculture principles. Some of these principles include: 1) minimizing chronic disturbances to the soil and biological community; 2) enhancing wildlife habitat; 3) maximizing crop diversity; 3) keeping the soil covered; 4) keeping a living root in the ground at all times; 5) efficiently managing water resources; and 6) integrating livestock into agricultural systems. Grant recipients will apply these principles to support producers in developing and advancing holistic approaches that simultaneously improve performance of agricultural operations and ecosystem functions. 

The Conservation Partners Program seeks to foster systems change and achieve environmental and social benefits at the landscape level. As such, it supports projects that generate impact on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of acres, with a strong preference for projects on the larger end of the scale. Projects that propose outcomes in terms of smaller acreages are not likely to compete well in the proposal review process.

Northern Great Plains/Prairie Pothole Region

This geography includes the region of historic tallgrass, mixed grass, and shortgrass prairie spanning portions of Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Priority will be given to projects in the Prairie Pothole region of western Minnesota and eastern North and South Dakota  (see map here). Key objectives for this category include:

• Improve soil health and maximize soil carbon on grazing lands and crop lands.
• Sustain and enhance conservation and economic values associated with working grasslands.
• Reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment runoff to local waterways.
• Enhance habitat quality and connectivity for waterfowl, shorebirds, pollinators, and many other species that depend on the grassland–wetland complexes of the region. 

Priority strategies include: crop management, grazing management, and habitat enhancement.