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S. Sudan secures $50m to manage its national parks

Author: Alhadi Hawari | Published: August 30, 2022

Elephants cross the plains of the Boma-Jonglei landscape in South Sudan.[Photo by Paul Elkan and Jeremy Gustafson]

The government has secured over $50 million from the African Parks for the rehabilitation and management of national parks as a means to boost tourism, the Minister of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism has confirmed.

The African Parks is a South African conservation organization that manages most of the parks in the continent.

Minister Rezik Zachariah said the deal was struck on the 25th of August 2022.

He told Eye Radio that the grant will be used for the management of Boma and Badingilo National Parks, including other wildlife corridors covering over three million hectares.

Zacharia added that the 10-year renewable management agreement seeks to invest in the protection of wildlife and in enhancing infrastructure development of the tourism sector.

“We opened the door for better options, we have a chance from the IGAD partnership and therefore we got a good opportunity with the organization called African Parks Networks and it from South Africa,” said Rezik.

“We started a dialogue with them in June 2021 and with good luck, we have signed an agreement on date 25th August last Thursday,

“We have signed an agreement of partnership and based on that we will manage together conservation and management protection, and to develop the tourism in Bandingilo, Boma and in the area and also the migration,

“Their contribution is to do fundraising of money or they will bring money through us and, we will manage the project together and we will benefit from their experience,

“The estimated calculation is more than 50 million and this is out of secondary administration.”

The deal was signed by Major General Peter Loro Alberto, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, and Peter Fearnhead, Chief Executive Officer of African Parks.

The agreement was endorsed by Minister Rezik Zachariah Hassan, the Minister of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism.

For his part, Fearnhead expressed his commitment to work closely with the government to address challenges facing national parks in South Sudan.

He urged the government to help the Network for the smooth running of the project.

The agreement signed between the organization and the South Sudan government is a 10-year renewal management agreement for Boma and Badingilo national parks.

The commitment by the government is an important step in the long-term protection of these vital ecosystems and security-lasting benefits for people and wildlife – while ensuring the sustainable management of the largest migration of the largest mammals in Africa, outside of the Serengeti.

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities.

They currently manage 17 national parks and protected areas in 11 countries covering over 13.3 million hectares in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

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