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The Collaborative Capacity Program for Forests & Communities (CCP) is a new program that builds capacity within and across collaborative groups to achieve forest stewardship goals in ways that are most inclusive and equitable. What collaboration means is evolving and expanding into a broader range of ways of reaching and engaging with people and communities, including those who have been previously excluded from accessing National Forests and the benefits derived from them. This program aims to benefit all those who want to collaborate with and support forest stewardship activities and views collaboration as a cornerstone for sustained and adaptive forest restoration, recreation, and wildfire resilience projects.
Through funding, technical assistance, and peer networking, the CCP uses a holistic approach to provide capacity for successful collaboration and to encourage, amplify, and distribute new and innovative practices. The NFF convened an Advisory Committee with a broad range of perspectives and experience, including collaborative conservation, rural capacity building, Tribal and Indigenous stewardship and co-stewardship, and outdoor recreation for several months to influence the design and development of this program.
Photo by Shannon Smith
The NFF’s new Collaborative Capacity Program financial assistance component provides funding to support activities that make collaboration for forest stewardship successful. There are two funding pathways - one for Tribal applicants and one for non-Tribal applicants. Eligible collaborative efforts must describe how investments in collaboration will support a long-term strategy for achieving stewardship outcomes into the future and these outcomes must seek to benefit National Forest System lands. Click below for the CCP Financial Awards Page, which contains full program requirements and instructions for how to apply.
The Collaborative Capacity Program offers professional guidance for collaborative forest stewardship efforts and ensures that guidance is relevant and specialized to the communities and places it aims to serve. To ensure relevancy, the program provides technical assistance at multiple scales including the community-based and collaborative groups scale and regional network scale. Technical assistance also supports the iterative and adaptive collaborative forest stewardship approach by facilitating feedback mechanisms and opportunities for peer learning and exchange.
Jaimie Baxter, Collaborative Capacity Program Manager, at 360.899.0962 or [email protected]