The development of cooperation was studiedin three Dutch regions in which rural developmentstarted in the 1990s and where land use significantlychanged from a dominance of agricultural productiontowards an integration of primary production with otherfunctions. Herein, we analysed the critical successfactors for the production and maintenance of farmermanagedpublic goods, for cooperation through regionalcollectives and how these factors manifest themselves.We concluded that implementing and governing publicgoods were successful when done by farmers in closecooperation with local governing bodies and otheractors. Four key factors appeared to be most important:1) establishing a system of rewards as new element inbuilding a good ‘market structure’; 2) a mix ofgovernance forms and an alternation between theseforms; 3) visionary leadership with networks in bothpublic and private sector; 4) time for new ideas to ripenand for commitment among actors to grow.1Keywords – local cooperation, developing rural areas,farmermanagedpublic goods, critical success factors,multifunctional land use.