In 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development started a worldwide initiative to promote more effective biodiversity conservation strategies. The Global Conservation Program challenged six international conservation organizations to work with USAID and put new ideas into action. These partners worked beyond national parks and across political boundaries to develop and implement approaches to large-scale conservation where local stakeholders manage and benefit from biodiversity. Over ten years partners conserved 29 biologically diverse landscapes and seascapes around the world and in the process set new standards for what conservation actions can achieve and how conservation is done.