Conservation Partnerships for Sustainability in Southern Africa (COPASSA)

The project's performance monitoring report for the period October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2012, highlights progress against these objectives and results. The COPASSA project achieved its target of securing sustainable conservation of community-managed resources and biodiversity in eight countries of Southern Africa. This was achieved by maintaining or strengthening community conservation programs in these countries. Tanzania was added to the baseline of seven countries that maintained their community conservation programs. The project also made significant progress in strengthening local and regional capacity to consolidate, accrue, share, and apply lessons learned on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and biodiversity programming. The target for this result was six countries applying new lessons learned on CBNRM and biodiversity programming, and five countries (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) achieved this target. The project's intermediate results include the strengthening of a transnational network of public, private, and civil society partners, the development of new partnerships, and the fostering of active learning processes. The project achieved its target of increasing participation at the Regional CBNRM Forum, with eight countries participating in the forum. The project also exceeded its target of supporting 85 CBO/Private sector partnerships, with 97 partnerships supported. The project made significant progress in developing and promoting CBO governance performance-based management of natural resources (MOMS) and in enhancing gender equity through CBNRM. The project achieved its target of developing and promoting MOMS in seven countries, with all the countries implementing MOMS integrating governance aspects into their monitoring systems. The project also made progress in developing a regional knowledge management mechanism and in strengthening the policy environment for CBNRM. The project achieved its target of developing a regional communication strategy and supported the development of a CBNRM Sustainability Strategy for Namibia. The project also exceeded its target of supporting the development of a CBNRM Enabling Environment Framework, with seven countries currently pilot testing the framework. Overall, the COPASSA project made significant progress in achieving its strategic objectives and intermediate results, with 13 of the 15 results achieved or exceeded. The project's success is a testament to the effectiveness of the conservation partnerships and the commitment of the project's partners to achieving sustainable conservation of community-managed resources and biodiversity in Southern Africa.