A new report finds that civil society organisations in Africa struggle to get the support they need to play an effective role in natural resource management and conservation. Natural resource governance and biodiversity conservation in Africa is facing a period of crisis as a result of surging land acquisition, militarised commercial wildlife poaching, extractive resource industry impacts, and the steady pressures of demography and social change. Finding ways to scale up promising models of sustainable community natural resource management and to change policies through effective civil society action has become increasingly urgent. Yet new research suggests civil society is not being supported to do this. Civil society capacity is a key factor in scaling up responsive and durable solutions to natural resource governance and conservation challenges in Africa. Civil society organisations (CSOs) need to be able to participate in the identification, design, and implementation of solutions.