Expansion - 20 Parks by 2020

There are many animal conservation charities out there, all doing great things to protect wildlife. Doing their bit to protect wildlife from poachers or providing a safe haven for injured or orphaned animals across the world.

I really was spoiled for choice when selecting a charity - however it actually was quite an easy choice for me.  I'm not going to take away from the great work these organisations are doing but I'm a firm believer that these charities shouldn't need to exist.  Conservation is necessary, I get that, but it is also quite limiting.  'To conserve' in my mind means 'to keep as is' 'to protect' 'to stay the same'.

Are we really happy to keep wildlife numbers as they are?  Do we really want to focus our energy on maintaining the status quo?  For me we need to think bigger, we need to think about expansion, what can we do to increase the wildlife population?  What can we do to get their habitats back, to provide a safe, but totally natural, environment for them to flourish and grow their numbers back to the level they should be.

That's why I am supporting African Parks.  In partnership with governments and local communities, African Parks take on the direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks and protected areas in Africa.

African Parks currently manage 10 parks in seven countries - covering a combined area of six million hectares.  Their goal is to have 20 parks by 2020, covering 10 million hectares.  One of their five main areas of focus is expansion - to take on the management of even more parks and support these parks to ensure wildlife can again run free.

This goal got a massive boost when The Wyss Foundation committed $65m to African Parks to support the protection and management of four existing parks in Rwanda and Malawi AND to enable African Parks to conserve up to five new protected areas yet to be identified in other countries.

African Parks is currently developing potential park proposals in Chad, Kenya, Mozambique and Benin and is also having discussions with the Governments of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The Wyss Foundation's support for these new parks is in the form of 'challenge grants' that will be provided, if matching funds can be raised to support the long-term stewardship of the parks.

So there you go.....no pressure.  If African Parks are going to get this generous donation we need to first raise $65m to match it!!

You know what to do - its the green "donate now" button on my home page.

Think big, think expansion, think 'more wildlife' rather than 'no less wildlife' and please give generously.