Partners & Key Funders

Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DPNW)

The Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), under the Ministry of Tourism, is focused on protecting and conserving Zambia’s wildlife estates while enhancing the quality of life among communities and maintaining healthy biodiversity. African Parks commenced its work with the DNPW in Liuwa Plain National Park in 2003 and in the Bangweulu Wetlands in 2008. Mr Dominic L. Chiinda is the Director of Department of National Parks and Wildlife.

The Wyss Foundation

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.

Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF)

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.

Stichting Nieuwgeluk Philosophy

The Foundation supports large and small change-oriented initiatives that are sympathetic to people, animals and nature. Its goal is to make heart-warming contributions that make a difference to the preservation of a liveable world for current and future generations. In 2023, Stichting Nieuwgeluk Philosophy supported core costs in Zakouma National Park, the rhino translocation to Zakouma National Park in December and community development in Kafue National Park.

Dutch Postcode Lottery

The Lottery has been raising funds since 1989 to support organisations working towards a fairer and greener world. At least 40% of every ticket sold goes to charity. The Lottery has steadily grown to become the biggest charity lottery in the Netherlands, supporting 146 non-governmental organisations. Since its founding, the Lottery has dispensed over €8 billion. Over the last five years, African Parks has received €4.5 million in unrestricted funding. Also, we were the recipient, together with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Peace Parks, of €16.9 million for a Dreamfund project in 2020 to boost the ecological and socio-economic development of the world’s largest terrestrial transfrontier conservation area, the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA), which helped us fund operations in developing Kafue National Park, Zambia.

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Greater Kafue Landscape Limited (GKLL) are collaborating on a landscape-scale conservation effort across the Greater Kafue Ecosystem (GKE), which includes the 22,000 km² Kafue National Park and 44,000 km² of surrounding Game Management Areas (GMAs). Through formal conservation agreements with the Zambian Government, TNC and GKLL are aligning strategies and coordinating interventions to ensure that conservation actions across the ecosystem are synergistic and impactful. The collaboration focuses on integrating community conservation initiatives such as Human-Wildlife Conflict mitigation and sustainable livelihoods support, harmonizing activities in GMAs, and applying science-based tools to guide management decisions. TNC contributes technical expertise in areas such as fish biodiversity assessments, fire and land use change monitoring, and the development of wildlife and fisheries monitoring systems. Together, TNC and GKLL are also exploring sustainable financing mechanisms, including carbon projects, to secure long-term support for the protection and restoration of this vital landscape.