African Parks

Last updated

African Parks
Formation2000;24 years ago (2000)
Founders
Headquarters Johannesburg, South Africa
Key people
Website www.africanparks.org

African Parks is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on biodiversity conservation through protected area management, established in 2000 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was founded as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, a private company, then underwent structural changes to become an NGO called African Parks Foundation, and later renamed African Parks Network. The organization manages national parks and protected areas throughout Africa, in collaboration with governments and surrounding communities. African Parks manages 22 protected areas in 12 countries as of May 2023, and employs more than 5000 staff. [1] Michael Eustace, Peter Fearnhead, Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Anthony Hall-Martin, and Mavuso Msimang are credited as co-founders; Fearnhead continues to serve as chief executive officer. Prince Harry served as African Parks' president between 2017 and 2023 and later became a member of the board of directors.

Contents

Overview

The Johannesburg-based nonprofit conservation organization African Parks manages national parks and protected areas throughout Africa, in collaboration with governments and surrounding communities. [2] [3] [4] In addition to park management, the organization: actively manages and protects wildlife biodiversity, contributes to community development, works to reduce poaching and increase law enforcement and tourism, fundraises, improves infrastructure, and supports local residents. [5] [6] [7] African Parks' motto is "a business approach to conservation". [5] [8]

African Parks currently manages 22 protected areas in 12 countries, [9] [10] including W National Park and Pendjari National Park in Benin, [11] Chinko in Central African Republic, [12] [13] Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, Siniaka-Minia Faunal Reserve, and Zakouma National Park in Chad, [4] [14] Boma National Park and Bandingilo National Park in South Sudan, Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, [5] Liwonde National Park, Majete Wildlife Reserve, Mangochi Forest Reserve [15] [16] and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi, Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique, [17] Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo, [18] [19] Akagera National Park and Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, [3] [9] Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe, Iona National Park in Angola, and Bangweulu Wetlands, Liuwa Plain National Park and Kafue National Park in Zambia. [6] [20]

African Parks employs more than 1,100 rangers, as of 2020. [21] According to The Washington Post , the organization "has the largest counter-poaching force of any private organization on the continent". [21] Peter Fearnhead co-founded and continues to serve as African Parks' chief executive officer (CEO). [9] [6] Michael Eustace, [22] [23] Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Anthony Hall-Martin, and Mavuso Msimang are also credited as co-founders. [24] [25] Msimang, who once served on the Military High Command of Umkonto we Sizwe and is former CEO of South African National Parks, is as of June 2021 Emeritus Board Member of the organisation. [26] Vasant Narasimhan, M.D was appointed as African Parks’ Chairman of the Board on December 2022. [9] Other board members include Hansjörg Wyss who founded the Wyss Campaign for Nature and H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn who served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia (2012-18) and Chair, African Union (2013-14). [27]

African Parks has received funding from the European Union, Adessium Foundation, Global Environment Facility, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, [28] International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, National Geographic Society, [29] Nationale Postcode Loterij, Swedish Postcode Lottery, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), [30] United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Walton Family Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature, and Wyss Foundation, among others. [8] [31] [32] A financial endowment funded by Fentener van Vlissingen directs approximately US$700,000 towards African Parks' annual operations. [8] The organization's budget was approximately US$35 million in 2016. [33]

History

African Parks was established in 2000 as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, a privately held company. Msimang and Hall-Martin, who previously served as director and CEO of South African National Parks, respectively, [34] [35] held director roles at the newly formed company, as did Fentener van Vlissingen. Fearnhead, then head of commercial development for South African National Parks, initially served on the African Parks' advisory board. [34] Plans for the company started forming after Fentener van Vlissingen met with Nelson Mandela in 1998, [36] and early supporters included the U.S. Department of State and World Bank. [37]

The first protected areas to be managed by the company were Majete Wildlife Reserve and Liuwa Plain National Park, starting in 2003. [6] [7] African Parks had planned to manage Zambia's Sioma Ngwezi National Park, but efforts stalled. [34] [38] The holding company was moved from Johannesburg to the Netherlands, and went through some structural changes. Eustace, Fearnhead, Hall-Martin, and Msimang became minority shareholders in African Parks B.V., and continued to serve on the company's board. The African Parks Foundation was created in the Netherlands and became the company's only shareholder. African Parks B.V. was liquidated in 2004. [25]

During this transition, African Parks entered into agreements to manage Ethiopia's Nechisar National Park and Omo National Park in 2004 and 2005, respectively. [24] [39] [40] However, the organization announced plans to terminate these two agreements in December 2007, [41] and stopped managing parks in Ethiopia in 2008. [42] African Parks had also entered into agreements to manage Garamba, [43] as well as two Sudanese marine parks in Dungonab Bay and Sanganeb Atoll. These agreements did not give the organization full, long-term control, like most of their other contracts. [25] More internal changes were made to African Parks after Fentener van Vlissingen died in 2006. The organization's headquarters returned in Africa, and African representation returned to the board. [25]

The organization began managing Akagera with the Rwanda Development Board in 2009, [28] [44] Zakouma in 2010, [45] [5] and Chinko in 2014. [12] African Parks entered into a memorandum of understanding with Chad's government in February 2015 to establish Ennedi as a protected area, which became a Natural and Cultural Reserve. [46] Malawi's government entered into agreements for African Parks to start managing Liwonde and Nkhotakota in August 2015. [6] [47] The Wyss Foundation funded African Parks' lion reintroduction project in Akagera in 2015. [3] [31] During 2016–2017, African Parks worked to relocate 500 elephants and other animals from Liwonde and Majete to Nkhotakota. [48] [49] [50] Prince Harry assisted with the translocation, [9] which was done in partnership with the Malawian Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and funded largely by the Nationale Postcode Loterij. [2] [6]

In March 2017, African Parks received $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to fund conservation efforts in Malawi's Liwonde National Park and Majete and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserves, as well as Rwanda's Akagera National Park, and supported the addition of up to five other protected areas to African Parks' management portfolio. [3] African Parks entered into a ten-year agreement in mid-2017 to help manage Benin's Pendjari National Park, [11] then agreed to manage Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in December. [17] In 2018, the organization signed an agreement to manage Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve. [14]

Allegations of abuse

Rangers have been accused of abuses against indigenous people living in the parks. [51] As the allegations were reported upon again in 2024 and after an unnamed board member was alerted by Survival International, the African Parks announced that they had launched an investigation through an external law firm. [52] They also accused Survival International of failing to cooperate with their investigations, which prompted the head of Survival International's conservation campaign to state that African Parks "had the money to conduct their own investigation" and it was "their responsibility when we raise a problem to go there and investigate". [52]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Species reintroduction</span> Wildlife conservation technique

Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustaining population to an area where it has been extirpated, or to augment an existing population. Species that may be eligible for reintroduction are typically threatened or endangered in the wild. However, reintroduction of a species can also be for pest control; for example, wolves being reintroduced to a wild area to curb an overpopulation of deer. Because reintroduction may involve returning native species to localities where they had been extirpated, some prefer the term "reestablishment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nkhotakota</span> Place in Central Region, Malawi

Nkhotakota (Un-kho-tah-kho-tuh) is a town and one of the districts in the Central Region of Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. As of 2018, Nkhotakota had a population estimated at 28,350. The district had a population of 301.000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akagera National Park</span> National park in Rwanda

Akagera National Park is a protected area in eastern Rwanda covering 1,122 km2 (433 sq mi) along the international border with Tanzania. It was founded in 1934 and includes savannah, montane and swamp habitats. The park is named for the Kagera River which flows along its eastern boundary feeding into Lake Ihema and several smaller lakes. The complex system of lakes and linking papyrus swamps makes up over a third of the park, which is the largest protected wetland in Eastern-Central Africa.

Zakouma National Park is a 3,000 km2 (1,158 sq mi) national park in southeastern Chad, straddling the border of Guéra Region and Salamat Region. Zakouma is the nation's oldest national park, declared a national park in 1963 by presidential decree, giving it the highest form of protection available under the nation's laws. It has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since 2010 in partnership with Chad's government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garamba National Park</span> National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Garamba National Park is a national park in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo covering nearly 5,200 km2 (2,000 sq mi). It is among Africa's oldest parks and was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980 for its protection of critical habitat for northern white rhinoceroses, African elephants, hippopotamuses, and giraffes. Garamba National Park has been managed by African Parks in partnership with the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature since 2005.

Liwonde National Park, also known as Liwonde Wildlife Reserve, is a national park in southern Malawi, near the Mozambique border. The park was established in 1973, and has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since August 2015. African Parks built an electric fence around the perimeter of the park to help mitigate human-wildlife conflict. In early 2018, the adjacent Mangochi Forest Reserve was also brought under African Parks' management, almost doubling the size of the protected area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Fentener van Vlissingen</span>

Paul Fentener van Vlissingen was a Dutch businessman and philanthropist who was CEO of SHV Holdings for three decades. He contributed to the development of game reserves in Africa and purchased the Letterewe estate in Scotland in 1978. He pledged the right to roam there prior to the passage of the Scottish Land Reform Act of 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife of Malawi</span>

The wildlife of Malawi is composed of the flora and fauna of the country. Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, with Lake Malawi taking up about a third of the country's area. It has around 187 species of mammal, some 648 species of birds have been recorded in the country and around 500 species of fish, many of them endemic, are found in its lakes and rivers. About 20% of the country has been set aside as national parks and game and forest reserves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife of Mozambique</span> Flora and fauna of Mozambique

The wildlife of Mozambique consists of the flora and fauna of this country in southeastern Africa. Mozambique has a range of different habitat types and an ecologically rich and diverse wildlife. This includes 236 species of mammal, 740 species of bird and 5,692 species of vascular plant. The Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot, with significantly high levels of biodiversity, stretches from the southern tip of Mozambique into northeastern South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife of Rwanda</span>

The wildlife of Rwanda comprising its flora and fauna, in prehistoric times, consisted of montane forest in one third the territory of present-day Rwanda. However, natural vegetation is now mostly restricted to the three national parks and four small forest reserves, with terraced agriculture dominating the rest of the country.

Odzala-Kokoua National Park is a national park in the Republic of the Congo. The park was first protected in 1935, declared a biosphere reserve in 1977, and granted official designation by presidential decree in 2001. Odzala-Kokoua has approximately 100 mammals species, and one of the continent's most diverse primate populations. The nonprofit conservation organization African Parks began managing the park in collaboration with the Ministry of Forest Economy, Sustainable Development and Environment of the Republic of the Congo in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Majete Wildlife Reserve</span>

Majete Wildlife Reserve is a nature reserve in southwestern Malawi, established as a protected area in 1955. The reserve's animal populations were decimated during the late 1970s and 1980s due to poaching and other human activities. Majete has been managed by African Parks since 2003, when the nonprofit conservation organization entered into a public–private partnership with the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). Since then, wildlife has been restored, the park has achieved big five game status, and tourism has increased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve</span> National park in Malawi

Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, is the largest and oldest wildlife reserve in Malawi, near Nkhotakota. The park's hilly terrain features dambos and miombo woodlands as the dominant vegetation, which support a variety of mammal and bird species. Poaching has greatly reduced the number of elephants and other large mammals in Nkhotakota, but conservation efforts to restore the elephant population started when African Parks began managing the reserve in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Zambezian miombo woodlands</span>

The Central Zambezian miombo woodlands ecoregion spans southern central Africa. Miombo woodland is the predominant plant community. It is one of the largest ecoregions on the continent, and home to a great variety of wildlife, including many large mammals.

NBS Bank Limited, commonly referred to as NBS Bank, is a commercial bank in Malawi. It is licensed as a commercial bank, by the Reserve Bank of Malawi, central bank and national banking regulator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulendo Airlink</span> Airline of Malawi

Nyasa Express is a Malawian airline that offers both seat rate and charter commercial air services from their base at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Malawi. The company began operations in 2011, and provides services throughout Malawi and the region. The airline currently operates a fleet of four propeller aircraft models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast African cheetah</span> Subspecies of carnivore

The Southeast African cheetah is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa. The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta, and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa. In Namibia, cheetahs are mostly found in farmlands. In India, four cheetahs of the subspecies are living in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh after having been introduced there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart Parks</span> UK-based charity

Smart Parks is a UK-based charity that specializes in providing aerial surveillance and monitoring services through the use of unnamed aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly knowns as drones. The organization was founded in 2012 and launched publicly in 2013, and operates as a registered charity in the UK and a private foundation in the Netherlands. The organization was formerly named ShadowView.

The Wyss Foundation is a charitable organization based in Washington, D.C., that was founded by philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss. Established in 1998, the foundation has provided funding to conservation, environmental journalism, education, museums and progressive political advocacy.

References

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  14. 1 2 "The Government of the Republic of Chad Signs New Agreement with African Parks to Manage Ennedi, a Spectacular World Heritage Site in Chad". African Parks. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
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  27. ↑ ""about us/our people"".
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  31. 1 2 "Wyss Foundation Commits $65 Million to Conservation in Africa". Philanthropy News Digest. Foundation Center. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
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  35. ↑ Naidu, Edwin (29 June 2003). "Parks Board CEO quits for greener pastures". Independent Online . Retrieved 24 January 2018.
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  52. 1 2 Weaver, Matthew (28 January 2024). "Charity with Prince Harry as director investigating rape and torture claims". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
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