Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative

Program Basics

The Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) supports special local and regional conservation projects that involve groups of farmers or ranchers in partnership with USDA, farm, conservation and other non-governmental organizations, state and tribal agencies, and/or other entities. To implement the Initiative, the 2008 Farm Bill directs USDA to reserve 6 percent of the total funds or total acres, for each of the fiscal years 2009 through 2012, from the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program. This translates into over $100 million a year being available for special cooperative conservation projects.

The CCPI ensures specific attention to state and local conservation priorities and concerns, with 90 percent of the funds and acres reserved for projects chosen by the NRCS State Conservationist, in consultation with the NRCS State Technical Committees. The USDA Secretary is directed to use the remaining 10 percent of the funding for multi-state CCPI projects selected through a national competitive process. Project partnership agreements with USDA can run for up to 5 years.

2008 Farm Bill Changes

The 2002 Farm Bill authorized USDA to use funding from all the farm bill conservation programs to implement a “Partnerships and Cooperation” initiative, the precursor to CCPI. Unfortunately, the 2002 program was discretionary and USDA chose not to implement it. In the 2008 Farm Bill, therefore, Congress makes CCPI mandatory so that now USDA must implement the initiative.

While the 2002 Farm Bill’s P&C initiative included all conservation programs as possible funding sources, the new CCPI limits the funding sources to the Conservation Stewardship Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program.

[Special note for readers who have followed this initiative previously: In 2004 through 2006, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service did offer planning grants, but not actual implementation grants, to conservation partnerships, originally calling them Partnerships and Cooperation planning grants and then in 2006 renaming it the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative and making both planning grants and grants for Rapid Watershed Assessments. Shifting gears again, in 2007, NRCS issued a request for proposals still called CCPI but restricted solely to Rapid Watershed Assessments through a national competition.]

Legislative Authority

The CCPI is authorized by Section 2707 of the 2008 Farm Bill, which amends Section 1243 of the Food Security of 1985 and changes the Initiative’s name from the 2002 Farm Bill ‘s “Partnerships and Cooperation” to the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative. The amended CCPI is to be codified at 16 U.S.C. Section 3843. Other provisions of 16 U.S.C Section 3843 are deleted or transferred as amended to be codified at 16 U.S.C. Section 3844.

Key Aspects of the New CCPI

Partnership Purposes – The CCPI funds projects with the following purposes:

Eligible Applicants – Farmers and ranchers may enter into partnerships which include one or more of the following:

Required Information for Applications – A CCPI partnership agreement must include:

Priorities for Project Selection – NRCS will give priority to applications that—

Technical and Financial Assistance

NRCS is directed to provide appropriate technical and financial assistance to producers participating in the project in an amount determined to be necessary to achieve the project objectives.

NRCS will ensure that basic rules for conservation programs apply, such as rules governing appeals, payment limitations, and conservation compliance. Beyond those basic rules, special partnership projects may apply for, and NRCS may approve, adjustments to the CSP, EQIP, or WHIP program practices, specifications or payment rates to:

CCPI projects may include funding and programmatic aspects from multiple eligible programs, for instance, CSP and WHIP or EQIP and CSP. It is also possible in a given location that a CCPI special project might dovetail with a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) or Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP) project, such that the land retirement aspect of a project comes via the CREP or WREP and the working lands aspect of the project comes through the CCPI.

Funding

The 2008 Farm Bill directs the USDA Secretary to reserve 6 percent of the funding for EQIP and WHIP and 6 percent of the acreage for CSP in each fiscal year from 2009 through 2012 for implementation of the CCPI. Any funding or acreage that is not used for special CCPI projects will revert back to the regular program at the half-way point of each fiscal year (April 1).

Of the total amount available each year, 90 percent is reserved for state level projects, with funding decisions to be made by the State NRCS Office with input from the State Technical Committee. As mentioned above, USDA is also directed to use its discretion in making the CCPI flexible enough to meet local circumstances and to allow preferential enrollment of farmers and ranchers who are involved with CCPI projects. Adjoining states could also get together on projects where the watershed or eco-region targeted crosses state boundaries.

The other 10 percent will be awarded by NRCS headquarters in Washington, D.C. and will likely be reserved either for larger, multi-state regional projects or for projects addressing one or more priorities of the national office.

Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative Funding [1]

2009

2010

2011

2012

5 year cost

$99 M

$106 M

$114 M

$124 M

$444 M

Implementation Basics

USDA is implementing the CCPI through an annual Request for Proposals process. The 2009 Request for Proposals for the CCPI was published at 74 FR 10225: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ccpi/FedRegis_CCPI_3-10-09.pdf. About $58 million in program assistance was available, including about $6 million reserved for national competition for multi-state projects. The deadline for 2009 CCPI project applications was April 23, 2009.

For the 2009 RFP, only EQIP and WHIP funding was available through CCPI. Starting in 2010, CSP funding will also be available through the special initiative.

The 2009 RFP was open for public comment through April 8, 2009. Those comments will be reviewed by the agency as they formulate the 2010 RFP. In addition to general comments, NRCS requested public comments on how CCPI can best contribute to energy conservation, climate change mitigation, and carbon sequestration efforts. NSAC submitted comments on the RFP.

In either event, the State NRCS offices and the State Technical Committees will have a major role to play in developing requests for proposals and a process for evaluating proposals and making awards.

Example of a CCPI Special Project

The Statement of the Managers in the 2008 Farm Bill Conference Report provided the following example of a possible CCPI partnership project:

A cannery has closed and, without a cannery, nearby orchards are going out of business. A local watershed council joins with partners such as a State university, a wildlife organization and an organic growers’ cooperative. They develop a project proposal to improve water quality and wildlife habitat by working with interested local producers to transition their orchards to organic grass-based cattle operations. The project assigns various tasks to the organizational partners. The watershed council takes the lead in submitting a CCPI application to the NRCS State Conservationist to designate $10,000,000 in EQIP funds and $250,000 in WHIP funds to the project. The State Conservationist approves the projects and sets aside the approved funding for producers participating in the project. Producers participating in the project and meeting program qualifications apply for and are enrolled in EQIP and WHIP without having to go through individual program ranking processes.

USDA Contact Information

The USDA website for the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative is http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ccpi/.

To locate your state NRCS office: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/organization/regions.html#state

A new National Program Manager for CCPI has not yet been named. Information about this will be posted on the web-version of the guide as it is made available. The current National Program Manager is Gus Jordan, gus.jordan@usda.gov, 202-690-2621.

[1] For purposes of estimating the value of CCPI funding each year, we have approximated and monetized the value of the CSP acreage reserved for CCPI projects, and then combined that sum with the EQIP and WHIP dollars that will be available. Also note that CCPI funding is reserved for CCPI special projects for the first 6 months of each fiscal year. If there are insufficient partnership awards, and remaining funds will be returned to the general pool of dollars (or acres in the case of CSP) available for the underlying program.