A Mitigation Credit Agreement (MCA) is an advance mitigation mechanism that:
- Can only be developed within an approved Regional Conservation Investment Strategy (RCIS) boundary, by implementing actions described in the RCIS
- The service area of MCA credits can extend beyond the RCIS boundary if ecologically justified
- Can be created by any individual or entity on public or private lands
- May generate permanent and/or non-permanent credits
- Sponsors can create credits to offset their own project impacts, or they can sell their excess credits to other entities that need mitigation
- Can be acknowledged by other local, state, or federal agencies as meeting their mitigation requirements in addition to CDFW’s