Enjojo Foundation joins African Parks Incubation Programme
Republic of South Sudan 15 March 2024 – Conservation non-profit organisation Enjojo Foundation has signed a partnership agreement to join the African Parks Incubation Programme. This programme was launched as part of African Parks' commitment to partnering with conservation practitioners who share their vision for ensuring that protected areas are well managed for the benefit of wildlife and people. African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities through a Public-Private Partnership model. Through the Incubator Programme, African Parks partners with other organisations through formal agreements, providing support to help them achieve their conservation goals more efficiently.
With a co-management agreement from the South Sudan Wildlife Service (SWS) in the Republic of South Sudan, Enjojo Foundation is currently in the beginning phase of managing Lantoto National Park, located in the Central and Western Equatorial States in South Sudan. Lantoto possesses an impressive scenic landscape of densely forested savanna, forests and spectacular inselbergs. The ecosystem once supported a unique assemblage of wildlife species, given its position at the interface between the Sudanian-Guinean Savanna and Congolian Forest bioregions. Its transboundary connectivity with Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo increases the overall value of the park for the protection of important wildlife species such as chimpanzee, elephant and lion. Garamba has been managed by African Parks in partnership with the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature since 2005.
The instability and insecurity in the region, inadequate natural resource management, total lack of infrastructure, equipment and training for park teams, and lack of socio-economic opportunities for communities around the park are the most significant challenges facing Lantoto National Park and its ecosystem. The main drivers of the declining wildlife populations are bushmeat poaching, illegal wildlife trafficking, and elephant poaching.
Collins Apuoyo, Chairman of Enjojo Foundation South Sudan: “The African Parks Incubation Programme provides us with a great opportunity to learn and will support us to effectively deliver the mandate that we have been given by our stakeholders. In the next 10 years, we aim to protect and restore the park’s wildlife and ecosystems, realign the park boundaries and create community conservancies to better respond to wildlife and community needs and support those living within the Lantoto ecosystem to become drivers of sustainable local green economies.”
Partners in this programme receive guidance and support on various elements, from the development of management agreements with government partners to business planning and structuring, governance disciplines and best practices for protected area management. These partnerships provide input at both an institutional and operational level, with the support and exchanges adapted to the partner’s own specific needs and circumstances. With Enjojo Foundation and Lantoto joining the African Parks Incubation Programme, this brings it to supporting a total of six protected areas in six countries.
"It is with great pleasure that we welcome the Enjojo Foundation as a new partner in our Incubation Programme. This new partnership brings us closer to realising our shared vision: a network of thriving protected areas encompassing diverse ecoregions across the continent that benefit both people and wildlife. We are confident that our collaboration with the Enjojo Foundation will contribute to better preserving this important transboundary system," says Pierre-Armand Roulet, Incubation Programme Manager at African Parks.
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About African Parks: African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities. African Parks manages 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 20 million hectares in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For more information visit www.africanparks.org.
About Enjojo Foundation: Enjojo Foundation is a non-profit conservation organisation that signed a Co-Management Agreement with the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism in South Sudan in 2022 for the conservation, rehabilitation and management of Lantoto National Park and Kidepo Game Reserve. Enjojo Foundation’s mission is to manage and conserve protected areas through a conservation model which fosters peace, supports sustainable community livelihoods and enterprises, and enables socio-political stability. For more information, visit enjojofoundation.org.