Incubation Programme

Scaling Through Partnerships

To help scale our impact, and invest in practitioners who share in our ambition of effectively managing protected areas through long term management agreements, we launched an “Incubation Programme” in 2018 with the goal of having 15 additional protected areas managed by select partners, spanning a further 10 million hectares by 2030.

With rigorous criteria and a vetting process, our Incubation Programme identifies other management organisations, NGOs, and operators who, with mentoring and technical support, can be assisted to replicate our model of delegated management.

Our guidance includes: the development of management agreements with government partners (if not already obtained); sharing our business structures, governance disciplines and best practices; conducting operational audits to identify gaps; and mentoring to build confidence and expertise. Incubation is conducted on both an operational and institutional level, with the support and exchanges adapted to the partner’s own specific needs and circumstances.

Incubator sites are chosen under similar conditions for how we manage our own growth, in terms of the potential of the landscape to expand under a management mandate to incorporate adjacent protected areas; strategic locations encompassing specific biomes, species; management synergies; and opportunistic growth by request of governments. We are proud to share the first Incubation Projects which include three NGOs currently managing five sites spanning 81,736 km2 (8.17m hectares).

For further enquiries about this programme please contact [email protected].

African Parks Incubation Projects

  • Forgotten Parks Foundation
    Forgotten Parks Foundation’s mission is to enhance the management of national parks and protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities and to empower people to protect wildlife and wilderness. The organisation works in national parks and protected areas in Africa which have high levels of biodiversity yet are largely unknown or forgotten, suffering from inadequate support to ensure their long-term protection. FPF also consults and delivers technical support to partner conservation organisations throughout Africa.
  • Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust
    Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT), Malawi: a local NGO that works for the improved conservation of the unique ecology and endemic biodiversity within the Mount Mulanje Global Biosphere Reserve, and the sustainable use of the natural resources to benefit local community livelihoods. The Reserve is in the southwest of Malawi near the border with Mozambique and contains rich biodiversity with a high level of endemism.
  • Noé
    Noé: an international non-profit organisation that aims to conserve biodiversity through field-based programmes targeting endangered species and protected areas, and through environmental education programmes encouraging behavioural changes. Noé has been fully managing Termit and Tin-Toumma Nature Reserve in Niger since 2018, Binder-Lére Faunal Reserve in Chad since 2019, and Counkouati-Douli National Park in Congo since 2020.
  • 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. .