USDA Streamlines Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Arkansas Projects Receive $50,650,000 as Part of Unprecedented $1 Billion Investment

Release No.:110923-1 

Contact: Reginald L. Jackson, State Public Affairs Specialist

(501) 301-3133(w) 501-352-7761(c)

reginald.jackson@usda.gov

LITTLE ROCK, AR – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced improvements to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) as well as an unprecedented $1 billion investment to advance partner-driven solutions to conservation on agricultural land through 81 projects. Arkansas projects will receive $50,650,000 in funding. RCPP leverages a voluntary approach to conservation that expands the reach of conservation efforts and climate-smart agriculture through public-private partnerships. Historic funding is made possible by both the Inflation Reduction Act, part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, and the Farm Bill.

“The unprecedented demand for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, shows how much interest there is from producers and partners for voluntary conservation on the ground,” said Mike Sullivan, state conservationist in Arkansas for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “USDA is making historic investments and streamlining the program to make it work better for producers and partners. The combination of historic investments and streamlining actions will deliver conservation at a scale never before achieved through RCPP.” 

RCPP Improvements

NRCS has identified ways to streamline and simplify RCPP, ease the burden on employees and partners, and help maximize flexibility for partners to leverage their investments with NRCS resources and capabilities.  Through a concerted effort over the past eight months, using guidance, feedback and expertise from partners, employees, leadership and stakeholders, NRCS has identified several improvements that the agency will implement in the months and years ahead.

Improvements include:

• Streamlining RCPP agreements for fiscal year 2023 awards and moving to one programmatic agreement to begin implementing the RCPP projects awarded under the fiscal year 2024 notice of funding opportunity. This will allow partners to more quickly begin implementation of their RCPP projects. 
• Entrusting program management and negotiation to the state conservationists, who lead NRCS programs in each state, further encouraging the locally-led process and ensuring the necessary technical needs and costs were realized before project proposal submission.
• Establishing parameters and expectations for easement negotiations, including availability of easement deed templates and established program processes to reduce partnership agreement negotiation and implementation timeframes.
• Improving RCPP guidance and training, ensuring RCPP policies and procedures are communicated in a uniform and consistent manner.
• Enhancing existing business tools to improve the user experience while beginning development of new business tools that, through integration and automation, will reduce the time required for agreement negotiation, processing obligations and making payments to partners.

For the full list of RCPP improvements NRCS has identified for future implementation, visit our website. 

Once improvements have been implemented, NRCS estimated that the negotiation time of RCPP agreements with U.S.-held easement activities will be reduced from 15 months to three months, and from 19 months to three months with entity-held easement activities.

The RCPP improvements are coming at a critical time, as they will strengthen NRCS’s ability to implement the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provided $4.95 billion in additional funding for the program over five years. 

Unprecedented RCPP Funding

In Arkansas, projects include: 

Expand and Evaluate Private Investment in Partnership with NRCS 

Lead Partner: Restore the Earth Foundation, Inc.
Project Type: Classic
Funding Pool: Critical Conservation Area: Mississippi River Basin
Lead State: Arkansas
Total Funding Request: $25,000,000.00
Restore the Earth Foundation, Inc. (REF), in collaboration with four partners, will implement a $55 million public-private partnership, in which private sector funds will invest with NRCS to achieve environmental and social goals. The project targets the acquisition of US Held Easements to restore marginal cropland to its previous forested condition in Arkansas. The project has five objectives:

1. Demonstrate that private sector investments in Agricultural Conservation Easement Program-Wetlands Reserve Easements can be profitable;
2. Increase the number of acres of marginal lands in Arkansas restored to forest vegetation and protected via permanent easements;
3. Improve environmental, social and economic conditions for local producers and communities; 
4. Document and account for the impacts and co-benefits resulting from restoration;
5. Generate income from the sale of co-benefits, shared with participating producers and to fund future projects.

Protecting and Enhancing Wildlife Habitat and Water Quality of Conservation Reserve Program Tracts under Threat of Conversion in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Lead Partner: Mississippi River Trust
Project Type: Classic
Funding Pool: Critical Conservation Area: Mississippi River Basin
Lead State: Arkansas
Total Funding Request: $25,000,000.00
The Protecting Wildlife and Water Quality in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley project will convert approximately 7,500 acres of vulnerable bottomland hardwood and wetland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) tracts to permanently protected, U.S.-held conservation easements within the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (LMAV) of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. These tracts could be cleared and prior USDA conservation investments lost. This project will target the protection and enhancement of high-quality forest habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife, improve local water quality, support groundwater recharge, and increase sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

NWA Small and Urban Farm Preservation

Lead Partner: Northwest Arkansas Land Trust
Project Type: Classic
Funding Pool: State
Lead State: Arkansas
Total Funding Request: $650,000.00
This Northwest Arkansas Land Trust’s NWA Small and Urban Farm Preservation project will permanently protect 60 to 120 acres of small and urban farmland with prime soils, soils of statewide significance in addition to the farmland and grasslands within targeted parcels critical to access these important soils through Entity Held conservation easements. This project targets historically underserved farmers enabling them to grow and sustain viable farm enterprises, while we ensure future generations of farmers have access to working lands.

The Farm Bill and Inflation Reduction Act provided funding for this year’s RCPP projects.

With this $1.1 billion investment, NRCS has more than doubled the initial allocation for 2023 to capitalize on the unprecedented demand for RCPP and ensure project partners have the maximum amount of time to successfully implement conservation activities before funds expire in fiscal year 2031. Nationwide, there are:

• 77 climate-focused projects ($1.02 billion in funding). 
• Twenty-two projects focused on water quantity and conservation (more than $338 million in funding). 
• Three RCPP Classic projects are led by Tribes (more than $58 million in funding). 
• Sixteen projects support the protection and restoration of wildlife corridors ($216 million in funding).
• Ten projects focus on urban agriculture ($123 million in funding).

For a full list of selected projects visit our website. Since inception, RCPP has made 717 awards involving over 4,000 partner organizations.

Inflation Reduction Act Boosts Voluntary Conservation Programs

Through the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA has enrolled more farmers and more acres in voluntary conservation programs than at any point in history, following a backlog that has existed for years. In 2023, USDA enrolled nearly 5,300 additional producers in conservation programs across all 50 states (above what otherwise would have been possible through Farm Bill and appropriations funding), which will provide significant climate mitigation benefits. This includes:

• $100 million through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP);
• $250 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP); and
• $250 million through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

In total, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $19.5 billion over five years to support USDA’s oversubscribed conservation programs, and it represents the single largest investment in climate and clean energy solutions in American history.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov, visit http://www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/ or contact the local your local USDA Service Center.