African Parks is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to protect wildlife and nature by managing protected areas. It was created in 2000 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The group began as a private company called the African Parks Management and Finance Company. Later, it changed its name to the African Parks Foundation and then became known as the African Parks Network. Today, African Parks partners with governments and local communities to manage national parks and protected areas across Africa. As of October 2025, the organization oversees 24 protected areas in 13 countries and employs more than 5,000 people.
Overview
African Parks is a nonprofit group that protects nature in Africa. It works with governments and nearby communities to manage national parks and protected areas. The organization helps protect wildlife and their homes, supports community development, fights poaching, improves law enforcement and tourism, raises money, builds better roads and facilities, and helps people living near the parks. Its motto is "a business approach to conservation."
As of 2017, African Parks managed 22 protected areas in 12 countries. These include W National Park and Pendjari National Park in Benin, Chinko in the Central African Republic, Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, Siniaka-Minia Faunal Reserve, and Zakouma National Park in Chad, Boma National Park and Bandingilo National Park in South Sudan, Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liwonde National Park, Majete Wildlife Reserve, Mangochi Forest Reserve, and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi, Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique, Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of the Congo, Akagera National Park and Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe, Iona National Park in Angola, and Bangweulu Wetlands, Liuwa Plain National Park, and Kafue National Park in Zambia.
As of 2020, African Parks employed more than 1,100 rangers. The Washington Post reported that the organization has the largest group of people working to stop poaching among private groups in Africa. Peter Fearnhead started the group and still leads it as chief executive officer (CEO). Other co-founders include Michael Eustace, Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, Anthony Hall-Martin, and Mavuso Msimang. Msimang, who once worked in South Africa’s military and previously led South African National Parks, is an honorary board member as of June 2021. Vasant Narasimhan, M.D., became African Parks’ board chairman in December 2022. Other board members include Hansjörg Wyss, who started the Wyss Campaign for Nature, and H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn, who was Ethiopia’s prime minister from 2012 to 2018 and led the African Union from 2013 to 2014.
African Parks receives money from groups like the European Union, Adessium Foundation, Global Environment Facility, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, National Geographic Society, Nationale Postcode Loterij, Swedish Postcode Lottery, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Walton Family Foundation, World Wide Fund for Nature, and Wyss Foundation. A fund started by Paul Fentener van Vlissingen provides about $700,000 each year to support African Parks’ work. The organization’s budget was about $35 million in 2016.
History
African Parks was created in 2000 as the African Parks Management and Finance Company, which is a private company. Msimang and Hall-Martin, who had previously been the director and CEO of South African National Parks, became directors of the new company, as did Fentener van Vlissingen. Fearnhead, who was then the head of commercial development for South African National Parks, first served on African Parks' advisory board. Planning for the company began after van Vlissingen met with Nelson Mandela in 1998, and early supporters included the U.S. Department of State and the World Bank.
The first protected areas managed by the company were Majete Wildlife Reserve and Liuwa Plain National Park, starting in 2003. African Parks had planned to manage Zambia's Sioma Ngwezi National Park, but those efforts did not move forward. The holding company was moved from Johannesburg to the Netherlands, and it 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 closed down in 2004.
During this time, African Parks made agreements to manage Ethiopia's Nechisar National Park and Omo National Park in 2004 and 2005, respectively. However, the organization announced plans to end these agreements in December 2007 and stopped managing parks in Ethiopia in 2008. African Parks also made agreements to manage Garamba and two Sudanese marine parks, Dungonab Bay and Sanganeb Atoll. These agreements did not give the organization full long-term control, as most of their other contracts did. More changes happened in African Parks after Fentener van Vlissingen died in 2006. The organization's headquarters returned to Africa, and African representation returned to the board.
The organization began managing Akagera with the Rwanda Development Board in 2009, Zakouma in 2010, and Chinko in 2014. African Parks made a memorandum of understanding with Chad's government in February 2015 to create Ennedi as a protected area, which became a Natural and Cultural Reserve. Malawi's government made agreements for African Parks to start managing Liwonde and Nkhotakota in August 2015. The Wyss Foundation funded African Parks' lion reintroduction project in Akagera in 2015. Between 2016 and 2017, African Parks worked to move 500 elephants and other animals from Liwonde and Majete to Nkhotakota. Prince Harry helped with the relocation, which was done in partnership with the Malawian Department of National Parks and Wildlife and funded mainly by the Nationale Postcode Loterij.
In March 2017, African Parks received $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to support conservation efforts in Malawi's Liwonde National Park and Majete and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserves, as well as Rwanda's Akagera National Park. This funding also supported the addition of up to five other protected areas to African Parks' management portfolio. African Parks made a ten-year agreement in mid-2017 to help manage Benin's Pendjari National Park, then agreed to manage Mozambique's Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in December. In 2018, the organization signed an agreement to manage Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve. In 2022, the Republic of South Sudan and African Parks signed a 10-year agreement to manage Bandingilo National Park and Boma National Park and the Great Nile Migration Landscape. In 2024, African Parks celebrated 20 years of operation in Majete Wildlife Reserve.
Human rights abuses
In 2022, African Parks Rangers were accused of committing serious human rights violations against indigenous people living in the parks for many years. The accusations include rape, torture, and forced removals of the Baka Indigenous people in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo. In 2024, when the accusations were reported again and an unnamed board member was informed by Survival International, African Parks said they started an investigation with an outside law firm. African Parks also claimed that Survival International did not help with their investigations. The head of Survival International's conservation campaign responded by saying that African Parks had the resources to investigate and that it was their duty to look into the issues when they were raised. Survival International has kept reporting these human rights violations and sent a report to the UN Special Rapporteur as part of the Covid recovery program. They also accused other groups, like the World Wide Fund for Nature. African Parks shared a statement explaining their actions, including hiring a London-based law firm (Omnia Strategy LLP) and two human rights lawyers from Doughty Street Chambers to look into all the claims.
African Parks has been accused of neocolonialism by the World Rainforest Movement. The Financial Times reported that the organization, with support from American and European donors, has "gained control of 22 parks across 12 African countries, covering 20 million hectares." In November 2024, new claims arose about a group of women who were promised a meeting with a high-level African Parks manager to talk about elephants destroying their crops. When the manager did not show up and the women complained, the eco guards reportedly forced them to leave by whipping and beating them. This led to one woman being trampled and losing her baby.
In May 2025, the organization admitted that its rangers committed human rights abuses in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park. However, they did not share the results of an independent review done the previous year or explain the details of the abuse. In October 2025, the Chadian government ended its 15-year partnership with African Parks, blaming them for arrogance, poor cooperation, and failing to stop poaching in two important