Notice of Funding Opportunity for NRCS’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) – RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 | USDA NRCS NHQ RCPPAFA 22 NOFO0001137

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ RCPPAFA 22 NOFO0001137

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is offering a competitive funding opportunity under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) focused specifically on RCPP Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFA) for Federal Fiscal Year 2022. The core purpose of RCPP is to bring NRCS together with external partners who can add meaningful value, funding, expertise, and capacity to tackle natural resource concerns at the farm, watershed, and regional scale. Projects are meant to produce clear, measurable conservation outcomes tied to specific resource concerns, and they must ultimately benefit eligible agricultural producers and landowners on agricultural land and non-industrial private forest land.

This AFA notice is aimed at projects that do not fit as well under the standard RCPP "Classic" model. In other words, NRCS is signaling that AFA is for proposals that need more flexibility in how conservation outcomes are achieved, financed, and managed. Applicants are expected to explain, in a concrete way, what makes their approach innovative and why the project structure would be less effective under RCPP Classic. The tradeoff for that flexibility is that partners generally take on more administrative responsibility and may need to provide greater technical and operational capacity to design, implement, and track the work.

NRCS highlights the kinds of efforts that may be especially well-suited to an Alternative Funding Arrangement, reflecting direction from the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill). Examples include projects that use innovative methods to leverage federal conservation dollars, projects that apply pay-for-performance approaches (where payments are tied to verified outcomes rather than only practice installation), and projects involving large-scale infrastructure investments that still produce conservation benefits for agricultural producers and nonindustrial private forest owners. Even with these flexibilities, the heart of RCPP remains the same: partners must engage producers and landowners to implement conservation practices, systems, or approaches that address real resource concerns on the ground.

Projects are selected through a competitive process. NRCS evaluates applications using four main criteria: (1) impact, meaning the expected conservation benefits and measurable outcomes; (2) partner contributions, meaning the value-added investments and commitments brought by partners; (3) innovation, meaning how the project advances new approaches or improves effectiveness beyond business-as-usual; and (4) partnerships and management, meaning whether the partnership is well-structured and capable of delivering and overseeing the project successfully.

For FY 2022, NRCS announced funding availability for up to 15 RCPP AFA projects. The opportunity is open geographically across all 50 states, the Caribbean Area (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). Applications had to be submitted through the Programs Portal, and the original closing date listed for this announcement was April 13, 2022. The opportunity is a discretionary program under CFDA (now Assistance Listing) 10.932, with an award ceiling listed at $10,000,000.

A wide range of organizations can serve as eligible RCPP partners, reflecting the program's emphasis on local and regional coalitions. Eligible partner types include producer associations and groups of producers, state or local governments, Indian Tribes, farmer cooperatives, water and irrigation districts (including acequias and rural water associations), municipal water or wastewater treatment entities, institutions of higher education, conservation districts, and other entities with a demonstrated history of working cooperatively with producers to address conservation priorities such as wildlife habitat, nonindustrial private forest management, soil erosion, water quality, sediment reduction, and other watershed-scale issues. Entities that operate farmland or grassland protection programs that purchase agricultural land easements can also qualify under the cited regulatory definition.

NRCS encouraged prospective applicants to coordinate early with their State RCPP Coordinator for guidance, and it also provided an NRCS program email (rcpp@usda.gov) for general questions. In addition, NRCS promoted a general informational webinar covering both RCPP Classic and AFA opportunities, scheduled for January 20, 2022, with instructions for joining online or by phone.

• 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 Arrangements for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2022" 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 2022-01-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-04-13. (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.

Apply for USDA NRCS NHQ RCPPAFA 22 NOFO0001137

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