REPORT: AFRICAN PARKS Back to the fuTuRe Twenty years ago ecide which tree you’re convinced us we would do better to retreat going to climb – quickly.” than to rush up a tree: my fleeting glimpse of the Majete region of Dorian whispered his her among the tangled mess of branches and Malawi was a barren instructions with a bushes would have to suffice. Despite its “Dpalpable sense of urgency, and with good brevity, my encounter with this increasingly wilderness, its native reason. Climbing trees is apparently the only rare animal, being poached to the edge of animal populations way to escape a charging rhino. extinction, felt a true privilege. About 20m ahead, Shamwari snorted That rhinos are here at all in Majete decimated by poaching. deeply and angrily: her alarm call, warning Wildlife Reserve is thanks to the efforts of us to keep our distance. We’d spent five African Parks, a not-for-profit South African Now, as Sue Watt found, hours since dawn following the tracks of conservation organisation that has been the area is once again black rhinos, trawling across sandy river restoring wildlife to this beautiful corner of beds and grassy slopes, and we’d finally southern Malawi for the past 10 years. In home to elephants, found one obscured by dense thicket, one of Africa’s poorest countries, decades of lions and rhinos, thanks shading itself from the morning sun. poaching and poor policing have taken their According to Dorian Tilbury and his toll, leaving Majete an empty, plundered to the latest pioneering tracking team, Shamwari is a relatively wasteland. By 1992 not a single elephant Here: the battle-scarred placid rhino, but with her 18-month-old calf remained. Now, around 260 roam around horns of a black rhino; a conservation effort family of elephants make beside her, this was no time to move closer the 700 sq km landscape, many having been their way down a forest path by African Parks for a clearer view. Another aggressive snort relocated from other Malawian or South 54 WILD TRAVEL WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM WILD TRAVEL 55 © HOLGER EHLERS, ARIADNE VAN ZANDBERGEN/ALAMY ARIADNE VAN EHLERS, © HOLGER REPORT: AFRICAN PARKS African parks. In all, some 2,500 animals have been brought here, costing some uS$3 million, and today Majete is once again a thriving Big five reserve, home to 6,000 animals, including LIfe SuPPORT lions, leopards, elephant, buffalo, and those elusive rhinos. Majete is African Parks’ flagship project, one of seven Parks the organisation is restoring in six countries, spreading 4.1 million hectares across the continent. The company was established in 2000. Its founders were conservationists and leading businessmen seeking a new way of restoring Africa’s poorest wildlife regions. They included South African National Parks’ former Chief executive Mavuso Msimang, its Director of Conservation Dr Anthony Hall-Martin, and Commercial Director Peter fearnhead. They were soon joined by a charismatic Dutch billionaire and philanthropist, the late Paul fentener van Vlissingen, who shared their passion for How African Parks brought Rwanda’s conservation and provided much initial funding. Today, African Parks receives donations Akagera NP back from the brink from individuals, governments and NGOs kagera National Park suffered dreadfully ranging from the european union and the when refugees returned following Rwanda’s World Bank to philanthropic organisations Adevastating genocide of 1994. Thousands of such as the Walton family foundation. Majete Clockwise from left: a young impala pauses in its grazing people settled in the Park, poaching, breeding cattle Most people live in to check the photographer; two “daggaboys”, buffalos was its first project, acquired in 2003. By 2020 and destroying its ecosystem. In 1997, the wallowing in dagga, or mud; children from villages near government, in a damage-limitation exercise, the organisation aims to be protecting 15 poverty and have to be Majete learning about conservation; the suspension bridge leading to Mkulumadzi lodge in Majete; a lodge bedroom reduced Akagera by 50 per cent, allowing its new vulnerable parks in need of restoration, persuaded the wildlife is residents to remain in one half while protecting the making it the largest conservation remaining 1,120 sq km. But resources and expertise organisation on the continent. worth more to them alive a leading safari operator in Zambia and were limited, and in 2010 African Parks partnered Malawi, showed their faith in African Parks with the Rwanda Development Board to help business plans around the reserve. “We want communities to by opening a beautiful luxury lodge called manage and conserve this beautiful region. “African Parks has made a huge difference,” said Where African Parks differs from other take a leading role in conserving the natural Mkulumadzi in 2011, at a cost of 1.3 million Denise Umugwaneza, who’s been guiding in the organisations is in its ethos of adopting a resources inside and outside the reserve. If we euros. Prior to African Parks’ involvement Park since 2006. “We’ve had more training, more business approach to conservation, working in sideline them, there are going to be problems. only a handful of visitors bothered to come to equipment, better cars, new roads… and the brand partnerships with local governments and “Majete has more than 130,000 people Majete each year. By 2012 their numbers had new electric fence has made a significant difference crucially taking over full management control surrounding it. That’s a big group for a small reached nearly 6,000, a figure forecast to in human/wildlife conflict, poaching and other of its parks. As Dorian, the field Operations reserve. It’s quite a challenge.” double in 2013. illegal activity.” Up to 200 locals are now employed at Akagera Manager for Majete told me: “We aim to take Through protecting the wildlife, those Not all African Parks’ efforts have been as and African Parks provides school visits and depleted protected areas, rehabilitate them, communities receive tangible benefits, successful, however, and the organisation environmental education classes to thousands of restock them and get them moving again, to including new classrooms and teachers’ has had some steep learning curves. each of children to spread the conservation message. make them ecologically, socially and accommodation, clinics and bore holes. the regions in which they operate brings its Twenty years after the genocide, like Rwanda financially sustainable. We get a 25-year Around 200 staff are employed at the reserve own challenges, sometimes involving itself, Akagera is coming back to life. Today, it’s home to some 8,000 animals, including elegant tenure, then hand them back to their itself, and training and micro-finance are corruption, political chaos or organised giraffe, buffalo, warthogs, antelopes such as government and say, “There you go, be merry.” provided for new income-generating criminal activity on a massive scale. waterbuck, topi, and the Bambi-like oribi, monkeys, Despite its successes, it’s a controversial opportunities such as bee-keeping, chicken In 2007, African Parks prematurely and a grumpy old elephant called Mutware, who is approach with some critics believing parks rearing, making pottery and furniture, and terminated its contracts in two ethiopian renowned for his antisocial behaviour. Visitors have should remain under local management. hosting visitors on village visits. In education, National Parks – the remote Omo Valley and already increased by 50 per cent and African Parks African Parks’ bold ambitions would be African Parks has awarded over 600 Nech Sar – when complex problems plans to attract more by reintroducing lions and rhinos, making it a Big 5 destination. Of its 480 bird impossible to achieve without the cooperation scholarships to orphans attending secondary involving the relocation of around 50,000 species, the rare shoebill will be the most sought- of local communities that surround and schools. Children are learning about indigenous people. Human rights violations after sighting. sometimes share the regions with the animals conservation through wildlife clubs and visits by the government and bitter inter-tribal What is most striking is Akagera’s diversity and the organisation is striving to protect. Most of to the reserve, spreading the message to both conflicts made successful negotiations on scenic beauty. Among rolling hills and gorges, deep these people live in abject poverty and need to older and younger generations. sustainable land use impossible. valleys and open plains, lakes and papyrus swamp be persuaded that their wildlife neighbours As the wildlife returns, so do the visitors. In In both Zakouma National Park, Chad and cover a third of the Park, making it the largest protected wetlands in central Africa. are more valuable to them alive than dead. Majete, a new community campsite, a tented Garamba National Park in the Democratic Once at risk of being lost forever to an In Majete, Anthony Chikwemba, African lodge called Thawale, a heritage centre and an Republic of Congo, African Parks is striving encroaching population, its future now looks secure. Parks’ Community extension Officer explained education centre all help to bring in to reverse the trend of rampant commercial the importance of involving the 85 villages employment and income. Robin Pope Safaris, SUE WATT WHITFORD. ©WILL ivory poaching that has decimated 56 WILD TRAVEL WILD TRAVEL 57 REPORT: AFRICAN PARKS Clockwise from below: Mr Moyo from African Parks, guide Dorian Tilbury and the writer, Sue Watt, track rhino; mischievous young gorilla, Pan, eyes up the visitors; a hippo surfaces in one of the park’s lakes pachyderm populations. They do this with a unique biodiversity, much of Congo’s asked by the government to take on the against a backdrop of terror and violence, vast rainforest remains undiscovered and management of Nkhotakota NP, home to the even murder.