Notice of Funding Opportunity for NRCS’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) – RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangement for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2020. | USDA NRCS NHQ RCPP 20 GEN0010751

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ RCPP 20 GEN0010751

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released a fiscal year 2020 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) using an Alternative Funding Arrangement (AFA) model, a grant-like approach that differs from the more common "RCPP Classic" format. Applications for this AFA competition were due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 29, 2020, and had to be submitted through the RCPP Portal at https://nrcs-sites.secure.force.com/. NRCS indicated it could make up to 15 AFA awards in a fiscal year under this announcement, with an award ceiling listed at $10,000,000.

This opportunity is centered on NRCS co-investing with partners to carry out conservation projects on agricultural land and non-industrial private forest land. RCPP itself is designed to coordinate NRCS conservation work with external partners that can bring "value-added" contributions, meaning additional funding, expertise, services, or capacity that expands what can be achieved beyond NRCS resources alone. The goal is to address natural resource concerns at meaningful scales, whether on farms, across watersheds, or across broader multi-county or multi-state regions, and to produce measurable environmental improvements tied to the specific resource concerns a project targets. Projects may be proposed for a state or multi-state geography, or they may focus on one or more primary resource concerns within a designated Critical Conservation Area (CCA).

A key point in the notice is the distinction between RCPP AFA and RCPP Classic. Under RCPP Classic, most program funds typically flow from NRCS directly to producers and landowners through contracts and conservation easements. Under an AFA, NRCS provides RCPP funding directly to an eligible partner, and that partner then takes on the responsibility to work with producers and landowners and to pass funding along for eligible conservation activities. Because this shifts more implementation and administrative responsibility to the partner, AFA applicants are expected to be ready to handle added administrative duties and technical assistance roles that NRCS might otherwise provide or manage more directly under Classic.

The notice also reflects major program changes made by the 2018 Farm Bill, which reauthorized RCPP and repositioned it as a standalone program with three emphasized objectives: incentivizing innovation and flexibility, leveraging partner contributions, and measuring environmental outcomes. In practice, this means proposed projects are expected not only to implement conservation practices but also to show clear thinking about how they will innovate, how partners will contribute meaningful resources, and how outcomes will be tracked and demonstrated. NRCS stated that projects would be selected through a competitive process and evaluated against four criteria: impact, partner contributions, innovation, and partnerships and management.

The AFA track specifically targets project approaches that NRCS believes cannot be carried out as effectively through RCPP Classic. Applicants therefore must explain why their proposal is better suited to an AFA and describe what is innovative about their conservation approach. The notice points to examples drawn from the 2018 Farm Bill of the kinds of projects that may fit well under an AFA, including projects that use novel methods to leverage federal conservation investments, projects that use a pay-for-performance structure (where payment is tied to achieved outcomes rather than simply installing a practice), and projects involving large-scale infrastructure investments that generate conservation benefits for agricultural producers and nonindustrial private forest owners. Even with these flexibilities, the notice emphasizes that AFA projects still share RCPP's core focus: engaging producers and landowners to implement conservation practices, systems, and approaches that benefit working agricultural and forest landscapes.

Eligibility under this funding opportunity is limited to partners rather than individual producers or landowners. Eligible applicants include groups such as agricultural or silvicultural producer associations, other producer groups, state governments and units of local government, Indian Tribes, farmer cooperatives, water and irrigation districts (and similar entities with water delivery authority for agricultural producers), municipal water or wastewater treatment entities, institutions of higher education, conservation districts, and other organizations with an established history of working cooperatively with producers to address local conservation priorities or critical watershed-scale issues like soil erosion, water quality, sediment reduction, and related natural resource challenges. The notice also includes entities (including Tribes, state or local governments, and nongovernmental organizations) that operate programs purchasing agricultural land easements, as defined in relevant federal regulations. The geographic scope is broad: applications were accepted from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and U.S. Pacific territories including Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

For applicant support and additional details, NRCS pointed potential partners to the national RCPP webpage at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/rcpp/ and offered an informational webinar scheduled for April 2 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Questions about the announcement could be directed to the RCPP inbox at rcpp@usda.gov. The opportunity was published as a discretionary funding action (CFDA 10.932) by NRCS under funding opportunity number USDA NRCS NHQ RCPP 20 GEN0010751, created on March 17, 2020.

• The Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Funding Opportunity for NRCS’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) – RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangement for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2020." and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.932.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-03-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-05-29. (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 $10,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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