WWF's work in Africa at a Programme level

For more than forty years ...

...WWF has played a large part working with the people of Africa and Madagascar to maintain their natural heritage and restore the health of the continent's natural resources.

Today almost 10% of Africa’s land area is legally protected in the form of National Parks and Reserves.

Together with the critical and indespensible help of key partners and local governments, WWF is attempting to conserve biodiversity in the region through selective conservation programmes with local community participation.

Our ecoregion-based strategies have also been developed so that we can bring together the many elements that affect conservation, yet often transcend man-made boundaries. It is a massive effort to conserve biodiversity across the broadest spectrum with lasting results.

But key to it all is working with the people.

In Namibia, community game guards confront elephant poachers. In Madagascar, funds from a WWF debt-for-nature swap have helped train more than 350 forest agents and support locally run reforestation plantations.

WWF's increased emphasis on professional training has helped ensure that the region's abundant wild resources are today more securely in the hands of local stewards because conservation works best in Africa when it is done by Africans.

Find out more by checking out what WWF is doing in eastern, central, southern, western Africa, and on the island of Madagascar and its surrounding waters. To find out about WWF's work in northern Africa, please see the work our Meditteranean programme carries out.