Player-supported charity African Parks manages 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 20 million hectares, in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The organisation was founded in 2000 in response to the dramatic decline of protected areas due to poor management and lack of funding. In partnership with government and local communities, African Parks applies a business approach to conserving Africa's wildlife and remaining wild areas, securing vast landscapes and carrying out the necessary activities needed to protect the parks and their wildlife. With a strong focus on economic development and poverty alleviation of surrounding communities, African Parks wants to ensure that each park becomes ecologically, socially, and financially sustainable in the long-term.
Its goal is to manage 30 parks by 2030, which would make it the largest and most ecologically diverse portfolio of parks under management by any one NGO on the continent. For more information, visit www.africanparks.org/