A charity partially run by Prince Harry has had its mandate for managing wildlife reserves in Chad removed by the country’s government.
The non-profit organisation African Parks, of which the Duke of Sussex is a board member and former president, has been accused of a lack of investment in the reserves, and not doing enough to stop poaching.
Chad’s environment minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous said in a statement that it had also shown a “recurring indelicate and disrespectful attitude toward the government”.
African Parks managed 22 national parks and protected areas across 12 countries, including two wildlife reserves in Chad – the Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve and the Greater Zakouma Ecosystem, which includes the Zakouma and Siniaka Minia national parks.
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Chad’s Zakouma National Park has been managed by African Parks since 2010. File pic: Jeff Hutchens/Getty
Chad’s decision to withdraw African Parks’ mandates ends a 15-year partnership to lead anti-poaching efforts and restore elephant populations at several wildlife reservations.
African Parks said it was in talks to “better understand the government’s position” and “explore the best way forward to support the continued protection of these landscapes that are critical to conservation”.
A rhino is freed into an enclosure on its arrival at the Zakouma National Park in Chad in 2018. Pic: AP
The elephant population at Zakouma National Park increased from 450 in 2010, when it started managing the site, to more than 550 by 2019, according to the conservation charity.
African Parks, which was founded in 2000, aims to protect Africa’s national parks and advance conservation on the continent and around the world, particularly in countries where poverty and conflict impede the care of their wildlife.
The group takes over the day-to-day management of wildlife areas, to make each park in the 20 million hectares of protected area it manages, “ecologically, socially and financially sustainable for the long term”.
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Earlier this year, African Parks acknowledged guards at one of its national parks in the Republic of Congo committed human rights abuses against indigenous people who were displaced when the park was constructed.
The charity’s statement followed an independent human rights investigation into allegations that guards managed and paid by the charity had beaten, raped and tortured local people in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.
Chad’s decision to withdraw African Parks’ mandates to manage its wildlife reserves is a new blow to Prince Harry’s charitable endeavours after he stepped down from Sentebale, an organisation he founded to help children orphaned by AIDS in Botswana and Lesotho, earlier this year.
