Regional Conservation Partnership Program Alternative Funding Arrangements

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) promotes the coordination of NRCS conservation activities with partners that offer value‑added contributions to expand our ability to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns. Through the RCPP, NRCS seeks to co-invest with partners to implement projects that provide solutions to conservation challenges thereby measurably improving the resource concerns they seek to address. RCPP promotes collaboration with partners, stakeholders, and various communities, which is paramount to achieving equity in NRCS programs and services.

Up to $1.5 billion is available for RCPP projects through this announcement and the FY 2024 Classic announcement, which includes $300 million of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) funding and $1.2 billion of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding. NRCS will prioritize using IRA funds for projects that will implement climate-smart agriculture and forestry conservation activities. Up to $100 million is being made available specifically for NRCS to enter into programmatic partnership agreements with Indian tribes.

RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFAs) are intended to support project structures and approaches that cannot be carried out as effectively through the RCPP Classic NFO. RCPP AFA applicants must describe the innovative nature of the conservation approach they are proposing to justify potential funding through an RCPP AFA NFO rather than an RCPP Classic NFO. The 2018 Farm Bill provides the following examples of project types that might be implemented through RCPP AFA:

• projects that use innovative approaches to leverage the Federal investment in conservation;
• projects that deploy a pay-for-performance conservation approach; and
• projects that seek large-scale infrastructure investments that generate conservation benefits for agricultural producers and nonindustrial private forest owners.

2024 RCPP NFO Applicant Outreach Webinar

• April 23, 2024, 12pm to 2pm
• May 30, 2024, 12pm to 2pm