DW examines African Parks’ delegated-management model, in which the NGO manages 24 protected areas across 13 African countries covering more than 20 million hectares. Investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen says the organization’s armed rangers effectively assume the state’s monopoly on the use of force inside the parks, as Prince Harry prepares to step down from its board.
African Parks employs a roughly 2,000-strong ranger force across its protected-area portfolio, including 93 armed rangers and around 100 community eco-rangers at Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park. The feature examines their training, oversight and the pressures rangers face while policing protected areas.
Chad’s government and African Parks agree to restore their partnership, returning management of Zakouma National Park and Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve to the organisation. The agreement follows Chad’s termination of their 15-year deal less than two weeks earlier, after the government cited failures to curb poaching.
African Parks acknowledges human rights abuses by park staff at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo but withholds the full Omnia Strategy LLP investigation report. The inquiry draws on four field trips and interviews with roughly 180 stakeholders over 16 months; critics, including Survival International, say the response falls short.
