Since its inception in 2006, African Parks has taken on the management of 17 parks in 11 African countries, spanning over 13.3 million hectares. In short, they are safeguarding a significant portion of Africa’s biodiversity and preserving functioning ecosystems that sustain millions of people. We love that African Parks has harnessed first world philanthropy and technical expertise, to rewrite and take on park management (by way of long-term management contracts) for African governments who cannot maintain their own wilderness areas. Critical to African Parks success is that they assume complete control of all aspects of park management, such as law enforcement, ranger training and anti-poaching; to animal monitoring and translocation; to community outreach, job creation and community development; to tourism, infrastructure and fund raising.