A new conservation initiative is seeking to redefine the relationship between Africa’s national parks and neighbouring communities, with plans to establish a continent-wide network of community-led conservancies by 2036.
Rewilding Africa CIC, a UK-based Community Interest Company, has unveiled its National Park Conservancy model, which aims to create sustainable development zones around protected areas while strengthening conservation outcomes and unlocking investment opportunities for local communities.
The initiative is built on the premise that the long-term success of Africa’s national parks depends not only on safeguarding wildlife and habitats but also on improving the livelihoods of people living alongside them.
Rather than treating park boundaries as the end of conservation efforts, the model seeks to transform surrounding landscapes into managed conservancies where conservation, tourism, enterprise development and community participation work together.
“The National Park Conservancy model is about changing the relationship between national parks and the communities around them,” said James Arnott, founding director of Rewilding Africa CIC.
“We believe that by putting communities at the centre of the planning and development process, and by creating investable opportunities around conservation, we can build a model that delivers lasting benefits for people, wildlife and landscapes.”
The programme will be rolled out in two phases.
The first phase, a 24-month Destination Branding and Market Activation Programme, is designed to establish conservancy destinations, align stakeholders, attract partners and create the foundation for future investment. Rewilding Africa says this stage is intended to catalyse interest and prepare conservancies for long-term sustainability rather than support their ongoing operations.
The second phase focuses on the planning, development and management of conservancies. It includes natural resource assessments, community consultations, land-use planning, governance frameworks, investment strategies, enterprise development, landscape restoration and long-term management.
A key feature of the model is that communities are expected to play a central role in shaping each conservancy. Rewilding Africa says no master plan is imposed from the outset, with extensive communal planning intended to ensure local participation and consent before development decisions are made.
The organisation argues that conservation and economic development can reinforce each other when communities are directly involved and benefit from activities such as tourism, conservation-related enterprises and social-impact investments.
Two flagship pilot opportunities are already being explored around South Africa’s iconic Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and Zambia’s Kafue National Park. These projects are expected to test the model in different ecological, social and economic environments and demonstrate how it could be replicated elsewhere on the continent.
If successful, the initiative could create a network of connected conservation and development landscapes around national parks, opening new opportunities for responsible tourism, habitat restoration, community-owned businesses and nature-positive investment.
Rewilding Africa is now engaging national park authorities, governments, conservation organisations, investors, development partners and community leaders as it seeks suitable pilot destinations and strategic partnerships.
The organisation’s long-term vision is to establish National Park Conservancies across Africa by 2036, creating what it describes as a new conservation economy where protected areas and neighbouring communities thrive together.
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