Partners

The Ministry of Environment, Fisheries and Sustainable Development (MEPDD) is the Governance authority of protected areas in Chad with whom African Parks has signed management agreements for the Greater Zakouma Ecosystem (including Zakouma National Park and Siniaka-Minia Wildlife Reserve), Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve and the Aouk Project. In 2010, the Ministry and African Parks signed a public-private management agreement for Zakouma, followed in 2017 with a 10-year agreement for the development of the Functional Ecosystem of Zakouma, and a 15-year agreement for the creation, funding and management of the Ennedi Reserve. MEPDD is represented by its minister M. Mahamat Abdelkerim Hanno.

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.

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.

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.