Partners

African Parks manages the Chinko Conservation Area under a long-term Public-Private Partnership with the Government of the Central African Republic, represented by the Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting and Fisheries. First established in 2014 and revised in 2020, this agreement entrusts African Parks with the management, protection and financing of the Chinko landscape, including law enforcement, ecological monitoring and community engagement, while ensuring alignment with national conservation policies and territorial planning frameworks. The partnership establishes a shared governance structure between the State and African Parks, with the objective of securing the long-term conservation of biodiversity, strengthening sustainable land-use management and contributing to local development across eastern CAR.

The EU has been a crucial long-standing partner of African Parks, driving joint conservation and development goals in Central, East and West Africa. Since 2005, this partnership has fostered stability in fragile regions attracting additional funding and new partners. The EU’s support has been critical in managing large landscapes, enhancing safety and security for both people and wildlife, and creating opportunities in green sectors. Together, we remain committed to advancing our shared vision for a sustainable future.

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 conservation 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 Chinko National Park in the Central African Republic (CAR). This initiative serves as a catalyst for broader regional conservation endeavours. Building on this success, Rainforest Trust entered into a second partnership with African Parks in 2024 to facilitate the restoration and expansion of Boma and Badingilo national parks in South Sudan to safeguard the remarkable antelope migration. African Parks is grateful for Rainforest Trust’s pivotal role in contributing to a combined commitment of US$11 million.

RWF supports ambitious projects, partners and programmes to foster a planet where people and nature thrive. With the passion of its 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. In 2021, 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, and Liwonde, as well as sparked matching grants to Iona and Odzala-Kokoua, in conjunction with the Legacy Landscapes Fund. 

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 and restore their landscapes. Since 2017, the LRF has contributed over US$5.4 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.

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$6.6 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 Rhino Recovery Fund supports African Parks’ preparatory work for the reintroduction of southern white rhino in Chinko. This partnership is helping advance key readiness steps for rhino recovery, contributing to the long-term restoration of ecological processes in a landscape with the scale and habitat diversity needed to support future rewilding efforts.