Candidate Conservation | Candidate Conservation Agreements

Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCAs)

Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCAs) are voluntary conservation agreements between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and one or more public or private parties. The Service works with its partners to identify threats to candidate species, plan the measures needed to address the threats and conserve these species, identify willing landowners, develop agreements, and design and implement conservation measures and monitor their effectiveness.

Rare Native Grass Will Benefit from Multi-Agency Agreement

Within Big Bend National Park's stunning and vast landscape, there is an uncommon scenery that rarely garners attention. Guadalupe fescue is a rare grass found growing at just a single site in the U.S.—at Big Bend National Park in Texas. There are two other known populations in adjacent Coahuila, Mexico. The grass is a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection.

Recently, the Service, with the National Park Service (NPS), prepared a CCA to cooperate on the conservation of Guadalupe fescue. Signatories to the agreement include Big Bend National Park, Guadalupe Mountains National Park and the Service's Austin Ecological Services Field Office.

The CCA advocates a number of actions to conserve Guadalupe fescue and minimize threats. If successfully and fully implemented, it may be possible to remove the plant from the candidate list.

The agreement calls for monitoring the known population, establishing a conservation team of experts for the species, educating staff and visitors, monitoring and controlling exotic plants and animals. The plan also calls for cooperation with Mexico to conserve its known populations while continuing the search for new ones. Studies to determine the possible need for prescribed burns or other management activities to maintain and improve habitat will be conducted. The agreement also calls for performing genetic studies.

The federal agencies will cooperate to seek funding for the additional studies. The current agreement builds on one signed between the same parties in 1998 that expired in 2005.

Guadalupe fescue is native to isolated mountain ranges in western Texas and northern Coahuila, Mexico. It was first found at one location in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in 1931 and at one location in Big Bend National Park later the same year. It has not been found in the Guadalupe Mountains for many years.

Louisiana Pine Snake CCA

The Louisiana Pine Snake CCA is a multi-party conservation agreement that covers this rare reptile's known range within Texas and Louisiana longleaf pine habitat in the Service's Southwest and Southeast Regions. The 2003 CCA was amended and revised in 2013 based on new research information, updated threat assessments, and modeling techniques and continues to be an effective cooperative effort among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station and National Forests in Texas and Louisiana, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Defense's Fort Polk and the Join Readiness Training Center, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in order to collectively implement proactive conservation measures and habitat management guidelines.

Read our fact sheet on CCAs.

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs)

Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) expand on the success of traditional CCAs by providing non-federal landowners with additional incentives for engaging in voluntary proactive conservation through assurances that limit future conservation obligations. One of the primary reasons for developing the CCAA program was to address landowner concerns about the potential regulatory implications of having a listed species on their land. The CCAA program specifically targets non-federal landowners and provides them with the assurance that if they implement various conservation activities, they will not be subject to additional restrictions if the species becomes listed under the ESA. These assurances are only available to non-federal entities for actions on non-federal lands.

Read our fact sheet on CCAAs.

See an example of a CCAA to benefit the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Oregon.

Combining CCAs and CCAAs

The Service has prepared guidance [48KB] that combines the use of CCAs and CCAAs to encourage expanded collaborative conservation to help preclude the need to list species occuring on both federal and non-federal lands. This guidance was developed in response to the request of non-federal property owners and has the potential to provide greater certainty that if a species becomes listed despite their efforts, they will not be required to make significant additional changes in their activities on federal or non-federal lands. See Using Existing Tools to Expand Cooperative Conservation for Candidate Species Across Federal and Non-federal Lands.  [48KB]

Partners for Fish and Wildlife

Partners for Fish and Wildlife is a voluntary program administered by the Service to help protect, enhance and restore wildlife habitat on privately owned (non-federal) lands by providing landowners with technical and financial assistance to restore fish and wildlife habitats in partnership with other federal agencies, State and local governments, educational institutions, businesses, and conservation organizations. With information from the Candidate Conservation Program, the Partners Program selects candidate species that would benefit from their expertise and resources.

For more information, go to www.fws.gov/partners.

For additional information on grants, go to the Grants Overview page.

For additional examples of Candidate Conservation Agreements in action, view the Tools for Conservation Partnerships edition of the Endnagered Species Bulletin.