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Intake Opens: Monday, January 27, 2025, 9 a.m. ET
Intake Closes: Friday, February 28, 2025, at 4 p.m. ET

Purpose of the Initiative
The purpose of the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program (RALP) Marginal Lands Initiative is to create or enhance natural features on marginal agricultural lands to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, sequester carbon, and increase Ecosystem Goods and Services.

This project contributes to the following objectives:

• Improved soil health
• Reduced nutrient losses from agriculture
• Enhanced pollinator habitat
• Increased biodiversity
• Climate change mitigation, including GHG reduction and carbon sequestration 
• Climate change adaptation

RALP eligible practices supported under the RALP Marginal Lands Initiative

• Strip planting of perennial cover to create grassed waterways or to manage salinity within a field
  (includes terraces and farmable berms)
• Convert marginal and high-risk annual cropland to permanent grassland (or perennial biomass crops; includes establishment of native or tame forages)
• Creation or widening of buffers (trees or shrubs) in agricultural fields adjacent to surface water sources, as well as other actions to protect existing riparian areas such as reshaping edges and fields;
• Establishment of pollinator strips or other perennial cover for pollinator habitat or other biodiversity purposes in fields or field margins of existing cropland (area planted with high-value plants that pollinators like)
• Establishment of shelterbelts for farmyards, livestock facilities, and fields as well as intercropping with trees on annual cropland
• Planting of trees or shrubs on marginal or high-risk cropland
• Wetland restoration, construction of new wetlands
• Water retention ponds

What do you need to apply?

1. RFP Guidance
   Carefully read the RFP Guidance, as only eligible applicants will be considered.
    
2. RFP Form
   Submissions to the RALP are to be submitted by Friday, February 28, 2025, at 4 p.m. ET. Please submit applications and relevant attachments via email to Jenna Salvatore at jsalvatore@conservationontario.ca.
    
3. Draft Workplan and Budget Information Spreadsheet

Resources

• Media Release (January 27)
• Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership