Partners

The Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), under the Ministry of Tourism, is focused on protecting and conserving Zambia’s wildlife estates while enhancing the quality of life among communities and maintaining healthy biodiversity. African Parks commenced its work with the DNPW in Liuwa Plain National Park in 2003, in the Bangweulu Wetlands in 2008, and in Kafue National Park 2022. Mr Dominic L. Chiinda is the Director of the DPNW.

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 147 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. We were also 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 elephant in Africa. Since 2015, the ECF has not only contributed more than $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.

A private philanthropic foundation dedicated to the long-term conservation of endangered wildlife and wild places in Africa, the Wildcat Foundation supports innovative approaches that disrupt traditional wildlife conservation paradigms, with a focus on comprehensive training, equipment, and technology for rangers. Since first partnering with African Parks in 2014, the Foundation has remained a steadfast supporter, investing in eight parks across seven countries. This commitment was championed by the late David Bonderman, who we lost in 2024, whose visionary leadership and deep dedication to conservation left an enduring impact. His legacy through the Wildcat Foundation has strengthened conservation efforts across Africa, ensuring the continued safeguarding of critical ecosystems. In 2024, Wildcat continued its vital support for the development and implementation of conservation law enforcement strategies in Garamba National Park in DRC and Kafue National Park in Zambia.

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 law enforcement support in protected areas, enhancing the professionalization and effectiveness of rangers across Africa. While standardized operational capacity transcends all protected areas under African Parks’ management, 10 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’s 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 Wyss 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 in Rwanda, 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 in Mozambique, Iona in Angola, Matusadona in Zimbabwe and Nyungwe in Rwanda. 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 a further five new parks. Three parks recently added to our portfolio – Kafue in Zambia, and Badingilo and Boma in South Sudan – are benefitting from the Wyss Foundation’s latest commitment and five others from renewal commitments: Bazaruto, Pendjari, Majete, Nkhotakota and Liwonde.