African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)
WHAT: Protecting Africa’s wildlife and natural landscapes.
IN DETAIL: AWF is engaged with the conservation of ecosystems alongside the protection of wildlife and resolution of human-wildlife conflict.
WHERE: Africa
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), founded in 1961 as the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation, is an international conservation organization that focuses on critically important landscapes in Africa.[1]
AWF’s programs and conservation strategies are designed to protect the wildlife and wild lands of Africa and ensure a more sustainable future for Africa’s people. AWF stops the degradation of animals and the world’s environment.
Since its inception, the organization has protected endangered species and land, promoted conservation enterprises that benefit local African communities, and trained hundreds of African nationals in conservation—all to ensure the survival of Africa’s unparalleled wildlife heritage.
Priority landscapes
AWF used to call the landscapes that it supports “heartlands”; now, the organization employs a “priority landscape” approach.[18] Heartlands include:[19]
Countries | Priority landscape | Start | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Congo | 2003 | Moist tropical forest between the Lopori and Maringa Rivers. Home of the endangered bonobo |
Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe | Kazungula | 2001 | Woodland-grassland mosaic with important wildlife migration corridors around the Zambezi River |
Kenya & Tanzania | Kilimanjaro | 1999 | Wetlands and savanna surrounding Mount Kilimanjaro |
Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe | Limpopo | 2002 | Savannahs, woodlands, rivers and floodplains around the Limpopo River |
Tanzania | Maasai Steppe | 1999 | Savannah including Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Park |
Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin | Parc W | 2010 | Protected savanna in West Africa. |
Kenya | Samburu | 1999 | Acacia grassland near to Mount Kenya |
Congo, Rwanda and Uganda | Virunga | 1999 | Volcanic highland mountains, home of the last 700 mountain gorillas in the world |
Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe | Zambezi | 2000 | Zambezi River, tributaries, acacia floodplain and interconnecting wetlands |
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Bili Uele | 2013 | Savanna mosaic north of the Uele River and lowland primary forest to the south. Home of the chimpanzee and forest elephant |
Namibia | Etosha-Skeleton Coast | 2013 | Vast salt pan, woodland, and savanna ecosystems |
South Africa | Great Fish River | 2013 | A 45,000-hectare reserve in the Great Fish River valley, home to increasingly vulnerable population of critically endangered black rhino. |
Zimbabwe | Save Valley | Save Valley Conservancy, home to endangered rhinos | |
Cameroon | Faro | 2012 | In addition to hosting the largest population of hippos in Cameroon, Faro National Park is home to elephants, black rhinos, cheetahs, hyenas, and other wildlife. |
Kenya | Mau Forest | 2011 | The Mau Forest Complex sits within Kenya’s Rift Valley and is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. |
Tanzania | Ruaha | 2012 | The Ruaha area will intersect with an agriculture corridor that the Tanzanian government wants to develop in southern Tanzania. |
From Wikipedia
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