The GRASP Partnership has to date primarily focused on assisting great ape range states to produce a national policy document on great ape conservation. Known as National Great Ape Survival Plans (NGASPs), this process aims to provide a strategic framework to new and on-going conservation efforts within each range state, generate political commitment from range state governments and act as a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the conservation work being undertaken. The GRASP Partnership is providing ongoing support to the governments of Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to produce and implement their NGASPs. Requests for assistance with great ape planning from the governments of Gabon, Ghana and Nigeria have also been received by the GRASP Secretariat, and under the guidance of the GRASP executive and scientific bodies. The feasibility of responding to these requests is being assessed.

In addition to national planning mechanisms, the GRASP Partnership has also provided support to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) regional great ape action plan processes in west and central Africa, which are complementary to the national policy instruments that GRASP promotes.

More recently, UNEP has provided funding to scientists from Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute, the Jane Goodall Institute and the Woods Hole Research Institute to produce an indicative list of priority populations in need of immediate conservation support. This list will be combined with the ongoing national planning processes to establish a number of national and scientific great ape conservation priorities for interested donors to support. More details.