Civil Society Sector Sustainability Commitments

Goals:

In September 2023, Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) was awarded an $80 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to pilot a program that compensates producers for adopting climate-smart practices across farms of various sizes and commodities, increasing adoption of conservation practices and soil carbon sequestration. Led by CALS Global at Virginia Tech, the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture is supported by USDA's Advancing Markets for Producers initiative with participation from more than 14 state and national partners. Virginia Tech will allocate over $57 million directly to producers to help implement climate-smart agricultural practices for both crop and animal production. The grant — the largest in the university's history — establishes pilot programs in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Virginia, and will assess the viability of scaling the program nationwide.

• Increase Productivity: Agricultural productivity plays a crucial role in achieving climate objectives and maintaining global food security. The Alliance uses findings from Virginia Tech's Global Agricultural Productivity Reports™ to deliver recommendations on integrating productivity into conservation programs.
• Develop Strong Markets: As consumer demand for sustainable food rises, producers can enhance their market competitiveness by implementing conservation practices, accessing new climate-smart markets through the Alliance.
• Build Resilient Farms: Conservation agriculture is an integrated approach to managing cropland and livestock that helps producers improve soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and adapt to changing weather conditions, supporting long-term productivity and environmental benefits.

Goals:

• AFT is committed to catalyzing a New Conventional Agriculture – one that broadly rebuilds healthy soils and thriving, resilient, sustainable agricultural communities that are ready for all challenges. We support and amplify the role of farmers and ranchers in building profitable, weather resilient systems that are biodiverse, equitable, and regenerative, and that maintain environmental, economic, and social sustainability. From policy leadership and coalition-building to research, technical support, and on-farm demonstrations, our approach is scaling up the adoption and long-term success of thriving systems that promote soil health. We unite multi-stakeholder interests to ensure a prosperous and resilient future for all farmers and ranchers and the land that sustains us.

   

• We believe that thriving farms and ranches are the backbone of thriving communities. When farms and ranches are profitable, resilient, and supported—when they offer fulfilling lives to the families who run them—their success ripples outward. The ripples enable food companies to be more resilient as their ingredient supply chains become more reliable. Consumers become more resilient as food security increases. This is all possible because the environment becomes more resilient and able to support cleaner water, air, and more through healthy, biodiverse ecosystems. That’s what the Thriving Farms and Ranches Initiative at American Farmland Trust reminds us of: that we are all better off when farms are resilient and able to sustain a farm family long into the future.

   

• American Farmland Trust’s mission is to save the land that sustains us by:

  • Protecting farmland
  • Promoting sound farming practices
  • Keeping farmers on the land

   

• LAND: We advance farmland protection through agricultural conservation easements, smart growth, smart solar, and smart tax policies.
• PRACTICES: We advance farming systems that prevent erosion and rebuild soil health through practices including cover crops, no-till, crop rotations, intensive rotational grazing, biochar, precision agriculture, and more.                                  
• PEOPLE: We help existing farmers and ranchers stay in business, encourage succession planning, and work to attract and support the next generation.

Goals:

• Having served since 1982 as one of the nation’s leading proponents for the adoption of agricultural conservation practices (e.g. no-till and cover crops) that are now known to have major climate benefits, CTIC will continue to advance practical systems that improve soil health and water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance resilience to intensifying climate change, and deliver other environmental benefits.
• Continue to connect stakeholders committed to improving the sustainability of American agriculture, including reducing agriculture’s greenhouse gas footprint, and serve as an unbiased source of information for the trends in adoption of conservation practices and how they help farmers adapt to current climate changes and mitigate future climate impacts.
• As part of the Farmers for Soil Health program through 2027, CTIC will be providing direct technical assistance to more than 200 farmers in South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to help achieve more than 87,000 acres of cover crop adoption in these three states.
• Nationally, CTIC delivers the multi-partner Farmers for Soil Health initiative, which targets doubling U.S. cover crop acreage to 30 million acres by 2030.

Progress:

• We have played a direct role in U.S. row crop farmers sequestering or avoiding at least 50 million metric tons of CO2e annually, for a cumulative total of more than 2 gigatons over our first four decades of operation.
• As of August 31, 2026, the Minnesota/Wisconsin/South Dakota region had exceeded its 2026 enrollment capacity (demand outstripped the approximately 133,000-137,000 acre target) and closed enrollment, moving new farmers to a 2027 interest list pending USDA guidance. Total enrollment for 2026 in CTIC’s 3 states is 362 farmers representing 224,000 acres.

Goals:

• America's farmers and ranchers have long been the driving force behind conservation, ensuring that working lands remain productive, resilient and rich with wildlife. Since 1937, Ducks Unlimited has partnered with farmers and producers to implement science-based solutions. Today, we offer dedicated technical and financial assistance programs to support sustainable practices on agricultural lands, such as science-based soil health practices, sustainable grazing systems, and irrigation water management.
• The on-the-ground conservation work of Ducks Unlimited offers a variety of natural climate solutions across North America for individuals, agencies, foundations and corporations seeking to reduce and/or offset greenhouse gas emissions. Our programs contribute to long-term mitigation through preventing emissions, drawing down additional atmospheric CO2, and reducing emissions associated with various management activities. These nature-based solutions also support climate adaptation strategies by providing resilient landscapes and corridors for species movement. Functional and resilient natural systems support healthy and sustainable communities for people all across the continent. DU is committed to working with like-minded organizations to support and implement pragmatic and science-based solutions in the agriculture industry. Together, we're building a future where agriculture and conservation thrive side by side.

Progress:

• The USA Rice – Ducks Unlimited Rice Stewardship Partnership has impacted 1 million acres on over 1,000 farms since 2013.
• On May 30, 2026, at its 89th Annual Convention, Ducks Unlimited announced completion of its 7-year, $4.06 billion "Conservation For A Continent" campaign — exceeding the original $3 billion goal, surpassing 20 million total acres conserved since 1937 (built on 15 million acres conserved pre-campaign), with more than 1 million acres conserved in each of 3 consecutive campaign years, and more than 26 trillion gallons of water conserved since 1937 (in partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada).

Goals:

• Slow global warming by cutting methane pollution 40%-45% from big global sources, including oil and gas and livestock.
• Slash carbon dioxide pollution by making 80% of the CO2 cuts the world needs to limit climate change’s worst impacts.

Goals:

• Build new narratives about the risks of climate change and the benefits of a rapid and just transition to a ‘carbon positive’ economy.
• Help organizations develop strategies that are aligned with the goal of staying under 1.5°C and help to catalyze widespread societal action and system change.
• Scale just and regenerative food and farming.

Goals:

• Leverage conservation districts and the locally-led system to increase adoption of practices that increase climate resilience, improve soil health, and provide environmental co-benefits (e.g., water quality, biodiversity).
• Strengthen the link between climate and economic resilience by developing partnerships to advance science-based research and incentivize production of climate-smart commodities through growing market opportunities.
• Support farmer-to-farmer outreach by strengthening NACD’s network of over 350 Soil Health Champions.
• Seek to mitigate historical and systemic barriers within the broader food system to increase participation of underserved producers and communities.
• Continue to assess current and emerging climate policy opportunities and make recommendations to NACD’s leadership that utilize the technical knowledge and expertise of conservation districts as part of the U.S. solution to the global climate crisis.

Goals:

• Sustain, restore, and enhance the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats for current and future generations.

Goals:

• Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s 2.5 million acres of habitat improvements for pheasants, quail, and prairie grouse also provided diverse sustainability benefits including enhancing biodiversity, stewarding water resources, and improving soil health on our nation’s public lands and more than 37,000 private farms and ranches.
• Our work on America’s grasslands and savannas helps to restore and protect one of the world’s most imperiled ecosystems and the wildlife, plants, and people that call it home. Filter strips and riparian buffers keep water clean by absorbing excess nutrients and preventing erosion, all while providing outstanding habitat for upland birds.
• Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever provide support to owners and operators on working lands of farms, ranches, and forest land to keep them healthy and productive – both economically and for wildlife value.

Goals:

• Empower conservation champions with innovative, real-time soil metrics to quantify how infiltration, water holding capacity, soil trafficability, leaching potential, aggregate stability and other soil properties are influenced by management.
• Reduce barriers to adopting, and improve equity for, funding conservation practices by historically underserved farmers and ranchers.
• Support the development of and funding for farmer led groups to address watershed scale conservation initiatives.
• Provide technical assistance to cattle ranchers to advance one million acres of regenerative grassland management across the Midwest, Great Plains, and westward. 
• Demonstrate the potential to diversify silage by interseeding cover crops that are harvested with the silage to support a resilient dairy system. 

Progress:

• Engaged 82 farmers across Alabama, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Wisconsin in three-year on-farm soil-health research projects; currently analyzing data for journal articles.
• Recruited 30 farmers across Kansas and Nebraska for a three-year, peer-to-peer, soil health demonstration project with data collection.
• Launched three learning cohorts across the Midwest to provide conservation networking and peer-to-peer engagement. 
• 30,000 acres of soil health and continuous living cover practices have been implemented across 232 farms in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. 
• Developed grazing plans for 15,000 acres.
• Launched an on-farm collaboration with five dairy farmers in Eastern Wisconsin.

Goals:

• 2030 goals:
  • Reduce or store 3 gigatons of CO2 emissions yearly.
  • Conserve nearly 10 billion acres of ocean.
  • Partner with communities around the globe to conserve 650 million hectares (about 1.6 billion acres) of land.
  • Conserve 1 million kilometers (621,000 miles) of river systems and 30 million hectares (74 million acres) of lakes and wetlands by engaging in collaborative partnerships, promoting innovative solutions, and supporting policies that improve the quality and amount of water available in freshwater ecosystems and to communities.
  • Support 45 million people whose well-being and livelihoods depend on healthy oceans, freshwater, and lands.