A Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) is a type of ecosystem conservation plan that provides for long-term conservation and management for all species in the planning region – common, as well as threatened, endangered, and at-risk species in terrestrial, aquatic and marine environments. NCCPs provide for smaller habitat features as well as broad-scale natural communities, and for ecological processes that sustain the function of ecosystems.
The primary objective of the NCCP program is to conserve natural communities at the ecosystem level while accommodating compatible land use. The program seeks to anticipate and prevent the controversies and gridlock caused by species’ listings by focusing on the long-term stability of wildlife and plant communities and including key interests in the process.
NCCPs are implemented in perpetuity; required to have assured long-term funding, and must have a science-based adaptive management framework. NCCPs are developed in conjunction with HCPs, the federal version of the same type of conservation plan, and are the preferred landscape conservation tool for California.
For more on NCCPs: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/habcon/nccp/
