Striking a balance between sustainable economic returns and nature conservation is a tough challenge. Rabobank and WWF Netherlands have experienced this first-hand over the past six years. Together with producers in Brazil, Chile, India and the Netherlands they are working on a range of sustainability issues in the food & agri production chains. At the ‘Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17: what makes a partnership successful?’ congress they have been able to share their successes and lessons learned with nearly 400 professionals from the business community, the government, knowledge institutes and NGOs. As project manager I look back at this event with great satisfaction.