The translocation is an extraordinary cross-collaboration between the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, the Government of the Republic of Chad, as well as African Parks and South African National Park (SANParks). This is a hopeful story about the revival of a highly threatened species, as well as the trajectory of Zakouma - a park that was once ravaged by poaching and insecurity but has been transformed into a secure and flourishing park since 2010.
The Republic of Chad
The Republic of Chad is African Parks’ partner in the management of Zakouma National Park. The Chadian Government, on the advice of the European Union, approached African Parks in 2010 to take on the management responsibility of Zakouma to put an end to the ongoing scourge of elephant poaching. The mandate agreement was signed in June 2010, and African Parks commenced management of the park and periphery in October of the same year.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa empowers us as a sector, and the Department of Environmental Affairs continue to endeavour for the full realisation of the right to an environment that is not harmful to the health and well-being of South Africans and all those who live in our country. As the sector and the Department, we aim to radically transform our approach to environmental protection, while also balancing it with socioeconomic development - crucial pillars on which sustainable development rests. As a nation, we adopted the National Development Plan, which maps out the vision of the country for the 20 years ahead. In the environment sector, we will implement related aspects of the priority areas that deal with environmental protection and sustainable development.
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. With 15 national parks and protected areas under management in nine countries covering 10.5 million hectares in Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Zambia African Parks has more area under conservation than any other NGO on the continent. For more information, please visit www.africanparks.org and Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
As a leading conservation authority, SANParks is a public entity under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Affairs, where inclusive conservation as opposed to previous policies of exclusion, are central to advancing the policies in line with the National Development Framework for Sustainable Development and the National Development Plan. SANParks manages a system of 19 functional national parks in seven of the nine provinces of South Africa with a total area of just over 4 million hectares comprising 67% of the protected areas under state management. The SANParks of today is recognised as a world leader in conservation and protected area management. In the last two decades, seven new national parks have been established, totalling over 700 000 hectares, with much of this being in the under conserved biomes such as the Succulent Karoo and Fynbos.
The Republic of Chad
