Strategic Funding Partners

A family company and a major player in the food industry through portions of dairy, fruit and plant-based products, and one of the world leaders in branded cheeses. Their corporate mission is to provide everyone with a healthier and more sustainable food. Bel is also committed to fighting climate change and is working towards reducing their net Greenhouse Gas emissions, including contributing towards increasing the capacities of carbon sinks through practices such as the preservation of ecosystems. As such, Bel is partnering with African Parks to fund the Chinko Conservation Area through the purchase of VCS carbon credits that were issued for the first time in 2023.

The Government made a significant five-year commitment of US$6 million when President Patrice Talon invited African Parks to assume management of Pendjari National Park in the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) Complex that spans Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The aim of the partnership is to conserve, manage, and develop this unique landscape. In addition, the Government of Benin has been instrumental in expanding our footprint into W Benin through a funding commitment of US$6 million. Its contribution has been critical in attracting other private and institutional funding to support the management of Pendjari and W national parks in Benin, which represent a significant portion of the largest intact wild ecosystem in West Africa.

In 2022, Bill travelled to four parks under African Parks’ management – Zakouma and Ennedi in Chad, Odzala-Kokoua in the Republic of Congo, and Chinko in the Central African Republic (CAR). It was an ambitious trip to some of the most remote parks in central Africa and the Sahel. During this trip, Bill was able to meet some of the incredible people who are working, day in and day out, to protect and conserve these extraordinary landscapes. Inspired by the people and work of African Parks, Bill made a generous multi-year commitment at the strategic partner level.

Established in 2004, the Foundation is an independent non-profit private organisation based in Palo Alto, California. It focuses, primarily, on education, child welfare and human services, nature conservation and land protection. In 2023, the Foundation renewed its commitment to African Parks by pledging to support the restoration efforts of Siniaka Minia National Park in Chad. The Foundation also provided supplemental funding to support dugong conservation efforts in Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique.

A Dutch foundation, DOB Ecology believes that strong and healthy ecosystems are vital ingredients for life, wellbeing, and sustainable development. The mission of DOB Ecology is to support partners that work to protect and restore threatened ecosystems and (re)build the conditions for resilient livelihoods of local communities. The multi-year partnership between DOB Ecology and African Parks revolves around intelligence-based conservation in Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

Extraordinary advocates for conservation and animal related causes, Donna and Marvin have a special interest in, and strong commitment to, saving elephants and other large species threatened by poaching. The Schwartz’s relationship with African Parks began in 2012, providing critical support to anti-poaching work throughout central Africa.

A long-time advocate for biodiversity conservation, with an enduring passion for species protection and habitat protection. With over three decades of dedicated leadership, Edith has played a vital role in advancing these crucial causes for African Parks since 2013. In 2023, her strategic partner-level contribution towards safeguarding the great migration in South Sudan exemplifies her unwavering dedication to preserving this impressive landscape.

The Lottery has been raising funds since 1989 to support organisations working towards a fairer and greener world. At least 40% of every ticket sold goes to charity. The Lottery has steadily grown to become the biggest charity lottery in the Netherlands, supporting 146 non-governmental organisations. Since its founding, the Lottery has dispensed over €8 billion. Over the last five years, African Parks has received €4.5 million in unrestricted funding. Also, we were the recipient, together with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Peace Parks, of €16.9 million for a Dreamfund project in 2020 to boost the ecological and socio-economic development of the world’s largest terrestrial transfrontier conservation area, the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA), which helped us fund operations in developing Kafue National Park, Zambia.

A joint initiative of Save the Elephants and the Wildlife Conservation Network, the ECF is a flexible and responsive fund that supports the best efforts by the most trusted organisations globally, working to secure a future for elephants in Africa. Since 2015, the ECF has not only contributed more than US$5.9 million to African Parks, but also expertise on best practice in elephant conservation. This has benefitted critical surveillance, intelligence-based protection, and human-elephant conflict mitigation activities for some of our most threatened elephant populations.

The EU has been a crucial long-standing partner of African Parks, working together towards joint conservation and development objectives in central Africa. Since 2005, this partnership has helped create areas of stability in volatile regions and attract additional funding and partners. The EU’s support has been critical in managing large landscapes. Through improved management of these ecologically important landscapes; striving towards safety and security for people and wildlife; and strengthening opportunities in green sectors, together we continue to work towards our common goals.

The Foundation is a conservation trust fund promoting the preservation of protected areas of the WAP Complex, while advancing education, science, and local economic development. The Foundation was set up by the Benin Government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with financial contributions from the Benin Government, Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Financial German Cooperation (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau – KfW). The Foundation has been providing significant annual financial contributions towards management of Pendjari National Park since 2017. From 2019 to 2020, FSOA provided 85% of funding to implement a Priority Action Plan to secure the Beninese W National Park, which evolved into a full management mandate to African Parks in June 2020. The Foundation also contributed significantly to the funding of the first three-month plan from the African Parks mandate for the management of Park W-Benin, up to December 2020. In 2023, the FSOA contributed €1.12 million to Pendjari and W in Benin. Its larger vision is to create a sustainable source of funding and to support the synergy of activities within the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex.

A Swiss foundation established in 1996, it is committed to helping protect the biodiversity of our planet through active conservation of threatened species and their habitats, and restoration of degraded ecosystems. Fondation Segré became a strategic funding partner of African Parks in 2016 and has contributed over US$8 million to support a range of parks. In 2023, Fondation Segré assisted African Parks in Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, Chad, and the newly added Boma-Badingilo landscape in South Sudan.

The Danish Hempel Foundation is the sole shareholder of the Hempel Group and a dedicated philanthropist. The Foundation is committed to making a difference by empowering children to learn and to address the biodiversity crisis, focusing on three crucial areas: sustaining specific key biodiversity areas, the development of new sources of finance for biodiversity conservation, and strengthening collective efforts. In 2023, the Hempel Foundation supported African Parks on the ground in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda and in Boma and Badingilo national parks, South Sudan.

The Foundation views its resources as rare risk capital that can improve conditions and create change in the most difficult circumstances and geographies. Since 2014, the Foundation has supported a range of habitat and wildlife conservation projects, as well as operational and security improvements, at Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. In 2021, the Foundation took the lead in supporting the historic translocation of 30 southern white rhino to Akagera National Park. Continuing its commitment, in 2023, the Foundation provided ongoing support to safeguard the growing rhino population at Akagera.

LLF is an international fund, established by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development as an independent charitable foundation under German law. Its financial resources stem from public and private sources. In addition to funding from the German Government through KfW Development Bank, NORAD and the French Agence Française de Developpement, each site needs to have a private match-funding partner. LLF addresses the biodiversity financing gap by sourcing significant and sustained long-term funding from both public and private donors, thus contributing to conserving biodiversity within a 30x30 framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Two protected areas managed by African Parks are among the pilot sites receiving funding from LLF: Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo and Iona National Park in Angola.

LGT Venture Philanthropy is an independent charitable foundation established in 2007 with teams in Switzerland, Sub-Saharan Africa, and India. The Foundation strives to improve the quality of life of people facing disadvantages, contribute to healthy ecosystems and build resilient, inclusive, and prosperous communities. LGT VP focuses on strengthening the capabilities of locally rooted organisations that deliver effective, scalable solutions across health, education, and the environment, contributing directly to the SDGs. LGT Venture Philanthropy is supporting African Parks to scale the protection and regeneration of threatened and destroyed ecosystems. The partnership supports the expansion of African Park’s incubation programme, cross-portfolio knowledge exchange, and institutional strengthening through the LGT Impact Fellowship program.

An initiative operated and managed by the Wildlife Conservation Network, the LRF is a nimble and flexible fund investing in the most innovative and effective projects across Africa to recover lion populations and restore their landscapes. Since 2017, the LRF has contributed US$4.72 million to African Parks. This funding has benefitted nine different African Parks sites, with a particular focus on several parks in West and central Africa, given the extreme vulnerability of lion populations in these regions. The LRF has invested heavily in Chinko in the CAR, part of a vast 65,000 km² wilderness that has immense potential for lion recovery.

Paul provided the bulk of the initial funding that established African Parks in 2000. In 2010, his daughters Alicia and Tannetta Fentener van Vlissingen committed €25 million to the African Parks Endowment Fund, in accordance with their father’s final wishes. Income from the Fund is earmarked, primarily, for African Parks’ overhead costs. During 2023, the Fund contributed €1.35 million to African Parks.

The Lottery manages lotteries on behalf of 20 postcode trusts. A minimum of 33% from each ticket goes directly to charities and good causes across Britain and internationally. Since 2015, African Parks has received more than £8.2m awarded by Postcode Planet Trust, thanks to funds raised by players of the Lottery. In 2023, we were awarded £1.5m through the Postcode Planet Trust, which was used to support the three Malawi parks and Garamba National Park in the DRC.

RWF supports ambitious projects, partners and programmes to foster a planet where people and nature thrive. With the passion of their founder, RWF works with urgency and an earnest belief that it will take all of us to reach global conservation goals, protect biodiversity, and create opportunity for communities. Rob Walton has been an invaluable partner to African Parks since 2003, providing support to safeguard the long-term health of protected areas, which are critical to the wellbeing of wildlife and local communities across Africa. In 2021, the RWF made a transformational US$100 million five-year commitment, the largest endowment gift in African Parks’ history. Portions of the Foundation’s annual contributions have supported various parks within our portfolio, including Chinko, Ennedi, Liwonde and Nkhotakota, as well as sparked matching grants to Iona and Odzala-Kokoua, in conjunction with the Legacy Landscapes Fund. Moreover, RWF made pivotal commitments to launch the African Parks Conservation Academy and enhance the reach and effectiveness of the Strategic Partners Programme. These initiatives will collectively strengthen the field of protected area management across Africa, demonstrating the Foundation's dedication to conservation leadership and capacity building.

For over 30 years, Rainforest Trust, a US-based non-profit, has been dedicated to supporting the creation and expansion of protected and conserved areas worldwide. Focusing on regions critical for threatened biodiversity and large wilderness areas, Rainforest Trust, in partnership with donors, local NGOs, and communities, is working to establish formal protection across an area of over 100 million acres. In 2021, Rainforest Trust partnered with African Parks in a collaborative effort to bolster the legal framework of the conservation area to create the Chinko National Park in the Central African Republic (CAR). This initiative serves as a catalyst for broader regional conservation endeavours. Building upon this success, Rainforest Trust entered into a second partnership with African Parks in 2023 to facilitate the restoration and expansion of Boma and Badingilo national parks in South Sudan to safeguard the remarkable antelope migration with a US$11 million commitment.

A charitable foundation established in 2017 by Jan Verhagen, a Dutch entrepreneur, Natura Africae is dedicated to the conservation of national parks and protected areas in Africa, recognising the reciprocal relationship between the livelihoods of local communities and the successful protection of an ecosystem’s wildlife. The Foundation provided €4.1 million in 2023, supporting park operations in Liuwa Plain, Odzala-Kokoua, Matusadona, Nyungwe and Ennedi. The grant also provided catalytic funding to strengthen African Parks’ community development work, particularly related to education.

The Foundation supports large and small change-oriented initiatives that are sympathetic to people, animals and nature. Its goal is to make heart-warming contributions that make a difference to the preservation of a liveable world for current and future generations. In 2023, Stichting Nieuwgeluk Philosophy supported core costs in Zakouma National Park, the rhino translocation to Zakouma National Park in December and community development in Kafue National Park.

The Agency has been implementing the Central Africa Regional Programme for the Environment (CARPE), an important effort to preserve the Congo Basin’s ecosystem, assisting governments and local communities to work together to sustainably manage natural resources and make long-term plans for forest land use. With a commitment of US$27million over the last 8 years (2016-2024), USAID has been providing support to African Parks to improve protected area management and wildlife conservation in the Garamba Complex and the Chinko Conservation Area within the Mbomou-Uele border region, straddling the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), and to promote sustainable livelihoods among households dwelling inside and on the periphery of these protected areas. Apart from a myriad of conservation and sustainable livelihood impacts being achieved, this USAID partnership is contributing towards the establishment of a foothold for governance, security and stability for the surrounding communities, and the wider DRC-CAR-South Sudan transboundary landscape.

INL advances security, stability, and the rule of law, prerequisites for sustainable economic development and protection of natural resources. Since 2017, INL has partnered with African Parks on critical conservation law enforcement support in protected areas, enhancing the professionalisation and effectiveness of rangers across Africa. While standardised operational capacity transcends all protected areas managed by African Parks, ten protected areas have received direct support in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Central Africa Republic, Benin, Malawi and Zambia. INL support has led to the development of leadership and core training infrastructure, enables air surveillance, improves the welfare of rangers and canines, enhances technology for communication, wildlife monitoring and information management and advances national and regional collaboration with other security and conservation partners. Evidence management training and support to judicial systems, have also contributed to notable increases in wildlife crime convictions. These interventions not only protect wildlife, but also contribute to increased security of neighbouring communities and regional stability.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) operates to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats. Since its initial partnership with African Parks in 2013, USFWS has consistently provided support to bolster conservation endeavours in key protected areas across central and western Africa. In 2023, USFWS continued its commitment by supporting the management and protection of Odzala-Kokoua and Zakouma, as well as backing elephant conservation initiatives in Garamba, Pendjari and W national parks.

Wildcat is a private philanthropic foundation, whose purpose is to help save, and provide for the long-term conservation of endangered wildlife and wild places in Africa. It supports innovative new approaches that disrupt traditional wildlife protection paradigms, focusing largely on comprehensive training modules, equipment, and technology for rangers. The foundation first partnered with African Parks in 2014 and has continued to demonstrate its commitment to conservation by investing in eight parks across seven countries. In 2023, Wildcat continued critical support for the development and implementation of conservation law enforcement strategies in Garamba in DRC, Pendjari and W in Benin, and Kafue National Park in Zambia.

A grant-making organisation, the Foundation offers UBS clients a platform to use their wealth to drive positive social and environmental change. The Foundation selects programmes that tackle environmental and climate issues, those with the potential to be transformative, scalable and sustainable, as well as programmes that improve children’s health and education. In 2022, the Foundation awarded African Parks a multi-year grant in support of Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been supporting African Parks since 2007, with the goal of promoting the African Parks management model across Africa. WWF Zambia contributes to core operating costs and conservation projects in Liuwa Plain National Park and Bangweulu Wetlands. WWF Belgium became a strategic funding partner in 2017, supporting the Malawi parks and Liuwa Plain National Park.

The Foundation is a private charitable organisation dedicated to supporting innovative, lasting solutions that improve lives, empower communities and strengthen connections to the land. The Foundation’s relationship with African Parks began in 2015 with a grant to support the restoration of Akagera National Park, followed by a significant investment in Malawi’s Liwonde National Park and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. In 2017, the Foundation made a ground-breaking commitment of US$65 million to provide ongoing support for Akagera and the Malawi parks, along with start-up funding for five new parks. This enabled the addition of Pendjari and W in Benin, Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique, Iona National Park in Angola and Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe. In 2021, the Foundation furthered its support of African Parks with another extraordinary commitment of US$108 million, which will provide for the continued support of current Wyss-funded parks, as well as start-up funding for another five new parks. Three new parks in the African Parks portfolio – Kafue National Park in Zambia, Badingilo and Boma National Parks in South Sudan – are benefitting from the Wyss Foundation’s latest commitment and two are benefiting from renewal commitments – Bazaruto and Pendjari.