Announcement for Program Funding for NRCS’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for Federal Fiscal Years (FYs) 2020 and 2021.

** NRCS revised this opportunity on October 13th to extend the closing date to November 30th and remove a sentence in the Land Eligibility section (p.10) related to industrial forest land. The deleted sentence read: “Forest land eligibility does not encompass industrial forest lands that are owned by companies, organizations, and individuals who engage in commercially oriented forest management and production activities.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) promotes coordination of NRCS conservation activities with partners that offer value-added contributions to expand our collective ability to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns. Through RCPP, NRCS seeks to co-invest with partners to implement projects that demonstrate innovative solutions to conservation challenges and provide measurable improvements and outcomes tied to the resource concerns they seek to address.

Using guidance contained in this notice, potential RCPP partners propose projects that generate conservation benefits by addressing specific natural resource objectives in a State/multistate area or address one or more priority resource concerns within an NRCS-designated critical conservation area (CCA). NRCS and partners collaborate to design, promote, and implement RCPP projects on agricultural and nonindustrial private forest land. Through RCPP, NRCS may provide both financial and technical assistance funds to project partners and agricultural producers to carry out projects. RCPP proposals are evaluated through a competitive proposal process based on four criteria: impact, partner contributions, innovation, and partnership and management.   

This funding announcement combines RCPP funding for FYs 2020 and 2021 and applies only to this competition. The forthcoming publication of the RCPP final rule may include program changes. 

Up to $360 million is available for RCPP projects through this announcement. Proposals are accepted from all 50 States, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), and U.S. territories in the Pacific Island Areas (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).

SUBMISSIONS: Proposals must be submitted through the RCPP portal. See section VIII of the 32 page Full Announcement located in the Related Documents tab of this opportunity for information on using the RCPP portal to submit proposals. Registration with USDA’s eAuthentication system is required to access the RCPP portal. Time-sensitive information on registering for eAuthentication access is included in section VIII of the 32 page Full Announcement located in the Related Documents tab of this opportunity 

FOR MORE INFORMATION: See the 32 page Full Announcement located in the Related Documents tab of this opportunity 

Applicants are encouraged to contact the appropriate RCPP State Coordinator(s) with questions. You can find the names of RCPP Coordinators (as of August 6, 2020) in appendix II of this announcement.

Interested applicants are encouraged to attend information sessions during the proposal open period. A webinar with general program information for RCPP applicants is scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern Time on August 27, 2020. Information on how to participate in the webinar will be posted on the NRCS RCPP website at

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/rcpp/. 

A second webinar that specifically addresses how to submit an RCPP proposal through the RCPP portal is scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern Time on September 10, 2020. Details on this webinar will be posted on the NRCS RCPP website at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/rcpp/. 

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