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African Parks

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African Parks
Formation2000; 24 years ago (2000)
Founders
HeadquartersJohannesburg, South Africa
Key people
Websitewww.africanparks.org

African Parks is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on biodiversity conservation through protected area management, established in 2000 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was founded as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, a private company, then underwent structural changes to become an NGO called African Parks Foundation, and later renamed African Parks Network. The organization manages national parks and protected areas throughout Africa, in collaboration with governments and surrounding communities. African Parks manages 22 protected areas in 12 countries as of May 2023, and employs more than 5000 staff.[1]

Overview

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The Johannesburg-based nonprofit conservation organization African Parks manages national parks and protected areas throughout Africa, in collaboration with governments and surrounding communities.[2][3][4] In addition to park management, the organization: actively manages and protects wildlife biodiversity, contributes to community development, works to reduce poaching and increase law enforcement and tourism, fundraises, improves infrastructure, and supports local residents.[5][6][7] African Parks' motto is "a business approach to conservation".[5][8]

African Parks currently[when?] manages 22 protected areas in 12 countries,[9][10] including W National Park and Pendjari National Park in Benin,[11] Chinko in Central African Republic,[12][13] Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, Siniaka-Minia Faunal Reserve, and Zakouma National Park in Chad,[4][14] Boma National Park and Bandingilo National Park in South Sudan, Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[5] Liwonde National Park, Majete Wildlife Reserve, Mangochi Forest Reserve[15][16] and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi, Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique,[17] Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo,[18][19] Akagera National Park and Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda,[3][9] Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe, Iona National Park in Angola, and Bangweulu Wetlands, Liuwa Plain National Park and Kafue National Park in Zambia.[6][20]

African Parks employs more than 1,100 rangers, as of 2020.[21] According to The Washington Post, the organization "has the largest counter-poaching force of any private organization on the continent".[21] Peter Fearnhead co-founded and continues to serve as African Parks' chief executive officer (CEO).[9][6] Michael Eustace,[22][23] Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Anthony Hall-Martin, and Mavuso Msimang are also credited as co-founders.[24][25] Msimang, who once served on the Military High Command of Umkonto we Sizwe and is former CEO of South African National Parks, is as of June 2021 Emeritus Board Member of the organisation.[26] Vasant Narasimhan, M.D was appointed as African Parks’ Chairman of the Board in December 2022.[9] Other board members include Hansjörg Wyss who founded the Wyss Campaign for Nature and H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn who served as Prime Minister of Ethiopia (2012-18) and Chair, African Union (2013-14).[27]

African Parks has received funding from the European Union, Adessium Foundation, Global Environment Facility, Howard G. Buffett Foundation,[28] International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, National Geographic Society,[29] Nationale Postcode Loterij, Swedish Postcode Lottery, United States Agency for International Development (USAID),[30] United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Walton Family Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature, and Wyss Foundation, among others.[8][31][32] A financial endowment funded by Fentener van Vlissingen directs approximately US$700,000 towards African Parks' annual operations.[8] The organization's budget was approximately US$35 million in 2016.[33]

History

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African Parks was established in 2000 as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, a privately held company. Msimang and Hall-Martin, who previously served as director and CEO of South African National Parks, respectively,[34][35] held director roles at the newly formed company, as did Fentener van Vlissingen. Fearnhead, then head of commercial development for South African National Parks, initially served on the African Parks' advisory board.[34] Plans for the company started forming after van Vlissingen met with Nelson Mandela in 1998,[36] and early supporters included the U.S. Department of State and World Bank.[37]

The first protected areas to be managed by the company were Majete Wildlife Reserve and Liuwa Plain National Park, starting in 2003.[6][7] African Parks had planned to manage Zambia's Sioma Ngwezi National Park, but efforts stalled.[34][38] The holding company was moved from Johannesburg to the Netherlands, and went through some structural changes. Eustace, Fearnhead, Hall-Martin, and Msimang became minority shareholders in African Parks B.V., and continued to serve on the company's board. The African Parks Foundation was created in the Netherlands and became the company's only shareholder. African Parks B.V. was liquidated in 2004.[25]

During this transition, African Parks entered into agreements to manage Ethiopia's Nechisar National Park and Omo National Park in 2004 and 2005, respectively.[24][39][40] However, the organization announced plans to terminate these two agreements in December 2007,[41] and stopped managing parks in Ethiopia in 2008.[42] African Parks had also entered into agreements to manage Garamba,[43] as well as two Sudanese marine parks in Dungonab Bay and Sanganeb Atoll. These agreements did not give the organization full, long-term control, like most of their other contracts.[25] More internal changes were made to African Parks after Fentener van Vlissingen died in 2006. The organization's headquarters returned in Africa, and African representation returned to the board.[25]

The organization began managing Akagera with the Rwanda Development Board in 2009,[28][44] Zakouma in 2010,[45][5] and Chinko in 2014.[12] African Parks entered into a memorandum of understanding with Chad's government in February 2015 to establish Ennedi as a protected area, which became a Natural and Cultural Reserve.[46] Malawi's government entered into agreements for African Parks to start managing Liwonde and Nkhotakota in August 2015.[6][47] The Wyss Foundation funded African Parks' lion reintroduction project in Akagera in 2015.[3][31] During 2016–2017, African Parks worked to relocate 500 elephants and other animals from Liwonde and Majete to Nkhotakota.[48][49][50] Prince Harry assisted with the translocation,[9] which was done in partnership with the Malawian Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and funded largely by the Nationale Postcode Loterij.[2][6]

In March 2017, African Parks received $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to fund conservation efforts in Malawi's Liwonde National Park and Majete and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserves, as well as Rwanda's Akagera National Park, and supported the addition of up to five other protected areas to African Parks' management portfolio.[3] African Parks entered into a ten-year agreement in mid-2017 to help manage Benin's Pendjari National Park,[11] then agreed to manage Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in December.[17] In 2018, the organization signed an agreement to manage Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve.[14]

Allegations of abuse

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In 2022, African Parks Rangers were been accused of committing human rights abuses and atrocities against indigenous people living in the parks going back decades.[51] The allegations include rape, torture, and forced evictions of the Baka Indigenous people in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo.[52] [53] As the allegations were reported upon again in 2024 and after an unnamed board member was alerted by Survival International, African Parks announced that they had launched an investigation through an external law firm.[54] They also accused Survival International of failing to cooperate with their investigations, which prompted the head of Survival International's conservation campaign to state that African Parks "had the money to conduct their own investigation" and it was "their responsibility when we raise a problem to go there and investigate".[54] Survival International has continued to report the human rights abuses and escalated the reports through a submissions to the UN Special Rapporteur including allegations against other organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature.[55] African Parks released a statement detailing specific actions taken including commissioning an investigation by a London-based legal firm (Omnia Strategy LLP) in partnership with two specialist human rights legal counsels from Doughty Street Chambers to investigate all the allegations.[56] The results of the investigation are expected in early 2025.[57]

African Parks has been accused of neocolonialism. The Financial Times reported that the organisation through American and European donors has "quietly accrued management control of 22 parks in 12 African countries, with a total area of 20mn hectares".[58] In November 2024, new allegations emerged involving a group of women who had been promised a meeting with a high-level African Parks manager to discuss the destruction of crops by elephants. Following the manager's failure to attend the meeting and subsequent to the women's complaints the eco guards allegedly "forced them to leave by whipping them and beating them, which led to a woman being actually trampled on and losing her baby."[57]

References

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  2. ^ a b Dasgupta, Shreya (21 July 2016). "Massive relocation of 500 elephants begins in Malawi". Mongabay. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d "African Parks gets $65M for conservation in Rwanda and Malawi". Mongabay. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b Leithead, Alastair (27 December 2017). "The country that brought its elephants back from the brink". BBC News. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d Russo, Christina (27 September 2013). "African Parks Partners With Chad to Combat Elephant Poaching". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 30 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Glowczewska, Klara (3 January 2017). "Prince Harry Joins a Pioneering Conservation Outfit in the Fight to Save Africa's Wild Animals". Town & Country. Hearst Communications. ISSN 0040-9952. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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  9. ^ a b c d e ""about us"".
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  11. ^ a b "Conservation group African Parks to look after West African wildlife". Mongabay. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  12. ^ a b "Chinko project in Central African Republic". Fondation Segré. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
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  16. ^ "The Malawian Government Signs Agreement with African Parks to Manage Mangochi Forest Reserve, the Fifteenth Park to Come Under Their Management in Africa". African Parks. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  17. ^ a b "African Parks backs marine reserve brimming with wildlife in Mozambique". Mongabay. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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  19. ^ Cannon, John C. (31 October 2016). "Brazzaville-issued mining permits dip into Congo's flagship park". Mongabay. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  20. ^ Boyes, Steve (7 December 2012). "Working for Water: The Bangweulu Wetlands and Africa's Shoebill…". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
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  22. ^ "Fight Club: Should there be a trade in rhino horn?". The Times. London. 30 November 2011. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  23. ^ Boynton, Graham (13 December 2012). "Is this the End of the Wild Rhino?". Condé Nast Traveler. ISSN 0893-9683. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
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  25. ^ a b c d Child, Brian; Suich, Helen; Anna, Spenceley (4 May 2012). Evolution and Innovation in Wildlife Conservation: Parks and Game Ranches to Transfrontier Conservation Areas. Routledge. pp. 422, 424. ISBN 9781136566097. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  26. ^ "Mavuso Msimang". African Parks. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  27. ^ ""about us/our people"".
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  29. ^ "Partnership Will Secure, Rehabilitate Benin's Pendjari National Park". Philanthropy News Digest. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  30. ^ Child, Brian; Suich, Helen; Anna, Spenceley (4 May 2012). Evolution and Innovation in Wildlife Conservation: Parks and Game Ranches to Transfrontier Conservation Areas. Routledge. p. 421. ISBN 9781136566103. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  31. ^ a b "Wyss Foundation Commits $65 Million to Conservation in Africa". Philanthropy News Digest. Foundation Center. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  32. ^ Torchia, Christopher (23 September 2015). "Wildlife park in Rwanda recovers 2 decades after genocide". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  33. ^ "African Parks: Annual Report 2016" (PDF). African Parks. p. 81. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  34. ^ a b c Macleod, Fiona (10 June 2003). "Makro king in parks rescue plan". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  35. ^ Naidu, Edwin (29 June 2003). "Parks Board CEO quits for greener pastures". Independent Online. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  36. ^ van der Vat, Dan (6 September 2006). "Obituary: Paul van Vlissingen". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  37. ^ Plaut, Martin (16 June 2003). "Africa's wildlife 'to be privatised'". BBC News. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  38. ^ Buur, L.; Kyed, H. (26 November 2007). State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities?. Springer. p. 225. ISBN 9780230609716. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  39. ^ Plaut, Martin (26 September 2005). "People problems for Ethiopian game park". BBC News. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  40. ^ Adams, William M.; Hutton, Jon M. (January 2008). "Parks and Poverty: The Political Ecology of Conservation". Current Conservation. Retrieved 25 January 2018 – via ResearchGate.
  41. ^ "African Parks to give up its management of the Omo National Park". Mursi.org. Oxford Department of International Development. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  42. ^ Uhlig, Siegbert; Appleyard, David; Bausi, Alessandro; Hahn, Wolfgang; Kaplan, Steven (2017). Ethiopia: History, Culture and Challenges. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 313. ISBN 9783643908926. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  43. ^ Nicolon, Thomas (9 May 2017). "DRC's Garamba National Park: The last giraffes of the Congo". Mongabay. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  44. ^ Kimenyi, Bryan (8 June 2017). "Ecologist killed by rhinoceros at Akagera Park". The New Times. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  45. ^ Nuwer, Rachel (28 January 2017). "The Rare African Park Where Elephants Are Thriving". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  46. ^ "African Parks Concludes Memorandum of Understanding with Government of Chad on Ennedi". African Parks. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  47. ^ Dasgupta, Shreya (29 May 2017). "Cheetahs return to Malawi after decades". Mongabay. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  48. ^ Morlin-Yron, Sophie (21 July 2016). "Malawi is moving 500 elephants across the country". CNN. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  49. ^ "500 elephants relocated in massive man-made African animal migration". Chicago Tribune. Tronc. 19 July 2016. ISSN 1085-6706. OCLC 60639020. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  50. ^ McKenzie, David; Swails, Brent (29 June 2017). "The big move: Relocating 500 elephants, one family at a time". CNN. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  51. ^ "Conservation Protected Areas are a disaster for Indigenous People". Foreign Policy Magazine. 1 July 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  52. ^ "Congo: African Parks commits to investigate allegations regarding rape and torture of indigenous people by employed guards in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park". Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  53. ^ THIOLLET, Helmut SCHOLZ, Marie TOUSSAINT, Ignazio CORRAO, Jordi SOLÉ, Caroline ROOSE, Francisco GUERREIRO, Pierre LARROUTUROU, Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP, Lydie MASSARD, François. "Parliamentary question | Atrocities committed by African Parks rangers against the Baka in the EU-funded Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Republic of Congo) | E-000759/2024 | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 3 October 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  54. ^ a b Weaver, Matthew (28 January 2024). "Charity with Prince Harry as director investigating rape and torture claims". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  55. ^ OHCHR, (28 July 2022). "Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur in response to the call for submissions Protected Areas and Indigenous Peoples' Rights: the Obligations of States and International Organizations". UN Special Rapporteur. Archived from the original. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
  56. ^ Mukpo, Ashoka (7 February 2024). "African Parks vows to investigate allegations of abuse at Congolese park". Mongabay. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  57. ^ a b Royston, Jack (29 November 2024). "Prince Harry Rangers Accused After Woman Loses Baby". Newsweek. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
  58. ^ "Subscribe to read". www.ft.com. Retrieved 3 October 2024. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
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