Life on Land

Through delegated management mandates with our government partners, African Parks secures, restores and protects national parks. We build functioning ecosystems that support both wildlife and people alike. The 15 parks under our management in nine countries represent seven of the 11 biomes in Africa, amounting to 26 million acres that are being protected and restored. Our management model is anchored by effective law enforcement, strong park and biodiversity management, and community engagement.

African Parks' law enforcement, which totals more than 1,000 locally employed rangers, actively enforces boundaries, mitigates conflict (both social and wildlife driven), and employs advanced anti-poaching techniques to establish security for the parks we manage. Through this combination of enforcement and monitoring, African Parks is creating anchors of stability, within which we can actively manage wildlife populations and their habitats. African Parks' Rangers have significantly decreased the number of high-value species poached within our parks, thus reducing the supply of illegal wildlife products, and have established stability under which wildlife and landscapes are recovering from previous degradation.

Strong working relationships with the neighboring communities is critical to the effective management of our parks. One of the greatest threats to parks and biodiversity is the ever-increasing human population, yet the communities that live within and on the periphery are also vital to the parks’ own survival and success. African Parks proactively engages neighboring communities to integrate the conservation of each park into the greater landscape by sharing benefits and including the communities in the decision-making process. Participatory land use planning integrates biodiversity values of the park and the economic and social needs of the community to establish a shared landscape.

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