Key principles for success

The Grasslands Programme was planned and implemented through partnerships with major role-players in production sectors who recognised the importance of this initiative.

In the five years of implementation, notable achievements have been in securing areas important for biodiversity conservation, influencing policies and regulations, strengthening institutional capacity, and catalysing pilot projects that demonstrate biodiversity gains across sectors.

Practical testing of tools or approaches in pilot projects has been critical to the lessons learnt and progress made. Through the process of piloting, the Programme and its partners was able to innovate and adapt. Constraints and opportunities across multiple sectors were identified, barriers overcome through adaptive management with partners, and capacity strengthened through learning by doing, and in some cases, influenced public and private sector policies.

Through this experience, six key ingredients emerged as common when biodiversity was successfully mainstreamed into production sectors.