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Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)

FARM PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION

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Presentation Overview

Current projects and partners
RCPP basic
How RCPP benefits Virginia
Proposal to Final Report: the typical RCPP timeline
Creating a proposal: what to include and what to know
Q&A

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Hold slide for project map

Partnerships Across the State

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RCPP Basics

Collaborative approach to voluntary conservation that allows NRCS to co-invest with partners to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns.
Eligible entities include private industry, non-government organizations, Indian tribes, state and local governments, water districts and universities
RCPP projects provide another funding opportunity for producers to implement conservation practices on the land.

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How RCPP benefits Virginia?

Promotes local conservation partnerships
Additional conservation funds for the commonwealth
Supporting staffing capacity
Promotes joint state expertise (farmers, conservation and farm organizations, and state and local agencies) to achieve shared conservation goals.
Climate benefits
Help the state local economy
Promotes education and outreach

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RCPP Proposal to Final Report

Notice of Funding Opportunity will be active on grants.gov
Proposal submission
Proposal review and selection
Partnership Agreement (PPA) negotiations
Supplemental Agreement (SA) negotiations
Annual reporting
Renewal opportunity and closeout

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For an RCPP proposal to be submitted a Notice of Funding Opportunity must be released and active on grants.gov. Typically, there will be numerous notifications about the NFO sent out to the public, but to ensure you stay aware of the opportunities establish communication with the NRCS RCPP Coordinator within the states you plan to include within the proposal.

It is never too early to start thinking about a proposal and what should be included in it. The more time that is spent, and the more communication that occurs before submission, the better the proposal will be.

�This year the state office team met with all lead partners to establish a line of communication and learn about each proposal before submissions occurred. We also held short calls to include the state conservationist, Dr. Martinez, in order to receive a high level overview of the project proposal. This allowed us to come to proposal reviews with some idea of partners abilities and understandings of their proposal as well as RCPP.

Later in the slides we will review some highlights of what is allowed in a proposal and what is not, but always make sure to fully ready the NFO and work with the coordinator to ensure all questions are addressed. Omission of required information may impact the review and selection of proposals for funding at either the state or national level.

Once a proposal is submitted it will be reviewed at either the state level (classic) or the national level (AFA). A team reviews proposals and comes to a consensus based on guidance and questions provided to the states by NHQ.

Proposals then make there way to the national office for further review and consolidation of information for multistate proposals. The proposals end at the Chief of NRCS and he, or she, makes selections for funding.

Once a proposal is selected for funding the lead partner will work with the lead state RCPP coordinator to begin partnership negotiations, also known as PPAs. We use the information in the proposal to create an in depth agreement that both NRCS and the partners follow throughout the life of the project. PPAs are reviewed by the national office to ensure all policy is followed and that both states and partners understand what they are agreeing to.

Once a PPA is active partners can start a supplemental agreement, also known as a SA. A SA is how the money “flows” for a project. This will allow partners to request payments and completion of deliverable items.

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Creating a Proposal

Classic vs. Alternative Funding Agreements (AFA)

Critical Conservation Areas (CCA)
State/Multi State

Activity types

Land Management and Rentals (LMR)
Entity Held Easements
U.S. Held Easements

Does the partner have a working knowledge of NRCS programs?
RCPP Principles:

Impact
Partner contribution
Innovation
Partnership and Project Management

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Land management and rentals are classified as the same and will include producer contracts similar to that of EQIP, CSP, or CREP/CRP

LMR includes rental payments (i.e., soil rental payments) or conservation practices or enhancements

Easements can include entity held or US held, and can include restoration activities if applicable.

When review proposals that include easements reviewers take into account if it is a new idea or if it mimics an existing program (i.e., it should not be the exact same thing that is offered via ACEP-ALE) reviewers look for a proposal that the partner adds to – NRCS knows how to operate they programs – we want input and additional support from our partners to make RCPP partner focused.

Project success, while not solely relying on it, may improve if partners have 1) worked with NRCS previously and 2) have knowledge of how NRCS manages programs and establishes producer contracts.

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Putting the “Partnership” in RCPP

RCPP is a Partnership – not a grant
Partner contributions – value added
Additional (contributing) partners can add value to a project
Contributing partner valuation methods should align with proposal goals

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Regional Conservation Partnership Program - RCPP is a partnership – not a grant. NRCS is providing funding and creating partnerships and agreements to support clients and producers across the country in order to implement conservation. NRCS and partners work together to create and implement a common goal. Partners should have a basic understanding of NRCS delivery (i.e., practice standards and national planning procedures

Partner contributions should be value added whether they are cash or in-kind

A variety of contributions will be beneficial to the proposal review and the project if selected

Although, a long list of contributing partners does not ensure a successful project

Remember – the lead partner (who submits the proposal) has to manage all contributing partners!

Lead partners should always have some contributions – having zero contributions from the lead partner is discouraged.

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Proposal Funding Breakdown

Technical Assistance (TA): funding used to support planning of Financial Assistance (FA) and project wide support activities

Partner TA-Implementation (TA-I)
Partner TA-Enhancement (TA-E)
NRCS TA

Financial Assistance (FA): funding made available for implementation of eligible conservation activities through producer contracts on eligible land.

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Included in the PPA is a break down of the funding. Each NFO will note the percentage of FA vs. TA-I vs. TA-E vs. NRCS TA that is required of the proposals. In order to effectively implement a certain amount of FA all parties need a certain amount of TA, for both NRCS and partners.

Partners have the ability to receive both TA-I and TA-E.

TA-E is whole project based implementation. This would include items such as project management, outreach and education, communication and coordination, defined outcomes assessment, and conservation innovations.

TA-I is implementation of producer specific contractions and working with clients one-on-one, or on a contract by contract basis.

NRCS also receives TA money for staff to assist in implementation of the project. This can be distributed to any staff who work with the project and producer contracts.

The main portion of all proposals is the FA. FA typically is around 70% of a project and is used for producer contracts for land management activities such as concervation practices and enhancements, rental payments such as soil rental rates, or easements – either entity held or U.S. held.

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What to Include and What to Know

All partners should have clear roles.
Activity types should align with partner and project goals.
Partner payment eligibility
Indirect costs should not be included
Work should only occur within the project

boundary

All in-kind work should have a valuation

method that shows a clear method of tracking

and reporting.

Include appropriate resource concerns

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The partner who submits the proposal will be designated the “lead partner”

Contributing partners can have as much input or as little interaction with the project as they want, but they need to have clear and defined roles and contributions

Activity types (i.e., LMR or easements)

Partners need to demonstrate their qualifications and abilities in order to be eligible for payment through an RCPP agreement

Valuation methods should support partners’ tasks and abilities to complete the work they say they will do

Certain costs cannot be included or paid for – such as “administrative time” that is not tied directly to a project, or cost of certain materials like office supplies

Maps of the project boundary are included in the proposal. Work should not occur outside of this boundary. Partners’ have the ability to select their own boundary, so think about where you may complete all tasks during the whole project

In-kind contributions and work should be easy to value and supportive of the project goals

Select resource concerns that are appropriate. It is okay to only select a few RCs as long as you/the lead partner know how the goals align with addressing them

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Questions?

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Contact information:

Courtney Kidwell

RCPP Coordinator (Acting)

Courtney.Kidwell@usda.gov

FARM PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION

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