Future of Conservation with African Parks

Join us at the Royal Geographical Society with African Parks Manager Rian Labuschagne to discuss the success story of elephant conservation in Zakouma National Park in Chad and the future for conservation.

Described as one of the last strongholds for central African wildlife, Zakouma is especially renowned for its free roaming herds of African elephants. Despite approximately 4,000 of them being killed from 2005, not a single elephant has been poached inside the park since 2011 and numbers are now on the rise. The elephants are the poster boys for Zakouma and are a rare conservation success story. This is undoubtedly largely down to the great work of the African Parks team, who are defiant in the struggle against poaching in spite of the killing of six of their rangers in 2012 by Sudanese poachers.

Since African Parks involvement in 2010, Zakouma National Park has also seen most species of larger mammals, including buffalo, giraffe, roan antelope and Lelwel's hartebeest increase in number. In fact, with the planned reintroduction of the rhino, Zakouma will be the closest park to Europe that has the Big Five.