East Africa

The savannahs of East Africa boast a globally important wildlife landscape filled with some of the most iconic megafauna on the planet. Savannah elephants, lions and other carnivores, wildebeest, and critically endangered black rhinos are some of the key species that live among, and sometimes in conflict with, local communities.

Fragmentation, subdivision and degradation of land, and loss of critical habitat connectivity are the biggest long-term threats to wildlife in East Africa, though populations also continue to suffer greatly from poaching and illegal wildlife trade. Additionally, both wildlife and rapidly growing human populations face mounting pressure from drought, competition for grazing land, and intensifying conflict as finite resources are stretched across ever-increasing numbers of wildlife, humans, and livestock.

The Foundation was formed during a wildlife safari to East Africa in 1987. Since then, it has invested in conservation initiatives, seeking solutions that benefit both people and nature. In partnership with a strong NGO network, local communities, and government agencies, the Foundation invests in wildlife monitoring, management planning, law enforcement, governance strengthening, and the development of livelihoods that are economically meaningful and culturally rooted — working to ensure that conservation efforts are effective, accountable, and built to last.

Central Africa

The Congo Basin of Central Africa supports some of the continent's most significant remaining populations of forest elephants, gorillas, and chimpanzees. These species range across both protected areas and the vast expanses of intact forest that define this landscape.

Yet across this landscape, poaching pressure, habitat loss, and human-wildlife conflict continue to threaten both wildlife and the rural communities that live alongside them. Our support focuses on the buffer zones and community lands that surround protected areas, where the stakes are highest: where people struggle to farm and make a living in close proximity to dangerous wildlife, and where the decisions communities make about land and resources will ultimately determine the fate of the species that share it.

The Foundation has invested in Congo Basin conservation since 1993, supporting protected area management, law enforcement, poaching prevention, and community capacity building in partnership with NGOs, governments, and local communities. In recent years, the Foundation’s focus has expanded beyond park boundaries to address human-elephant conflict and community organization in the buffer zones and rural areas.