The Conservation Partnerships for Sustainability in Southern Africa (COPASSA)1 Project is a three year initiative which is jointly funded by USAID and WWF. The Project is being implemented under a Cooperative Agreement awarded through the USAID Leader With Associate (LWA) mechanism, under the Global Conservation Program (GCP). It is building on more than 20 years of USAID support to community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) activities in the Southern Africa region. USAID began funding CBNRM in the 1980s under the Southern Africa Regional Program (SARP) with initiatives in Zambia and Zimbabwe, followed by additional programmatic investments in Botswana, Malawi, and lastly, Namibia. In total, USAID and its partners have invested more than $250 million2 in CBNRM and biodiversity conservation in southern Africa over the past two decades.