Partners

The Government of Benin signed an agreement with African Parks in May 2017 to revitalise, rehabilitate and develop Pendjari National Park. In June 2020, W National Park was added to the African Parks portfolio. The restoration of these parks is one of 45 flagship projects of the “Revealing Benin” national investment programme, announced by the Presidency of the Republic of Benin in December 2016. The Minister of the Living Environment and Sustainable Development ministry (Ministère du Cadre de Vie et du Développement Durable), José Tonato, the Director General of the National Centre of Management of Reserves and Protected Areas (CENAGREF), Abdel Aziz Baba-Moussa, and the Managing Director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Heritage and the Development of Tourism, Edmond Toli, have all played an instrumental role in this partnership.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.