Partners

In 2014, African Parks received the mandate to manage Chinko in partnership with the Ministry of Water, Forestry, Hunting and Fishing, which holds primary responsibility for sustainable management of forest resources, commercial forestry operations, and governance of national parks in the CAR. An updated and revitalised mandate for Chinko was further signed in April 2020. The Ministry of Water, Forestry, Hunting and Fishing is represented by Minister Gervais Mbata.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.