Figure 6. CESUs of the U.S. Northeast
Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs) are an example of regional public-private partnerships that work across agencies, sectors, and scales to address natural and cultural resource management issues. Nationally, CESUs efficiently facilitate collaboration between research institutions and federal agencies on research that informs the agencies’ environmental and cultural management decisions. Four CESUs cover the extent of the U.S. Northeast: Chesapeake Watershed, Great Lakes Northern Forest, North Atlantic Coast, and Southern Appalachian Mountains. Photo Credit: CESU National Network
4.2 FARMING, FOOD, AND AGRICULTURE
The farming, food, and agriculture category focuses on programs that specifically target agricultural producers and food systems. While targeting agriculture, this category contained a wide range of programs that addressed diverse aspects of food systems in a number of different ways.
4.2.1 Programs for Producers/Businesses Within the farming, food, and agriculture category, approximately half of the programs available specifically targeted producers and/or managers. Of these, a vast majority was directed towards the production of food and feed (n=346), with the regulation of detrimental organisms and biological processes (n=42) coming in at a distant second. Figure 7 shows only programs found for farmers and agricultural producers and illustrates the intended ecosystem function or service outcome of each program to its administrating sector and funding source. Overall, the programs in this category offer indirect incentives (food production n=264, regulation of detrimental organisms n=34) more so than direct incentives (n=82, regulation of detrimental organisms n=8), although variation among incentive mechanisms exists.
4.2.1.1 Access to cash, land, and tools/machinery
Direct incentives for farmers and agricultural producers varied but most often consisted of cost- share/cooperative agreement programs and implementation grants.
• Organic certification cost-share programs: available to help subsidize the overall cost of obtaining an organic certification
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