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		The Nature Conservancy in Africa Africa Into Africa Places We Protect Message From   The Director Working in   Partnership Support our Efforts Expedition Namib   Videos &   Slideshows

Support The Nature Conservancy's Africa Program!   We need your help to foster effective partnerships—to secure the well-being of African people and protect, enhance and restore some of the most extraordinary habitats on Earth. Ostrich family in the Serengeti, Tanzania © Gwynn Crichton/TNC   Go Deeper Online Columns Can our lead scientist Sanjayan free a trapped lion in Kenya? And will it make a difference? Find out in the debut of Wild Life, his new online column! How is a conservation planner from Virginia helping protect chimpanzees in Africa? Read Gwynn Crichton’s postcards from Tanzania to learn more. Into Africa Read more about our Africa program in the Spring 2007 issue of Nature Conservancy magazine. Have a question? Contact us.

 

Africa represents “the last great redoubt of large wild creatures left on earth,” as author Peter Matthiessen observes. Africa’s wildlife endures largely because of the vastness and resilience of its extraordinary habitats.

Deserts

Northern Namibia’s Skeleton Coast National Park is named for countless shipwrecked sailors who perished in its dunes. Many uniquely adapted species, however, survive on wind-blown particles and precious moisture siphoned from sea fog. 

Further inland, towering desert elephants, endemic black-faced impalas and endangered black rhinos inhabit Etosha National Park. The Nature Conservancy is partnering with Save the Rhino Trust, Round River Conservation Studies and the Namibian government to protect the critical wildlife corridor connecting the parks, while helping local communities establish sustainable ecotourism on their lands.

Forests

Home to majestic waterfalls, rare plants and a wondrous variety of wildlife, the tropical forests of East Africa's Rift Valley are of particular concern to the Conservancy. Here, leopards prowl the forest floor, while colobus monkeys and chimpanzees traverse the canopy.

At the turn of the 20th century, natural forests covered 30 percent of Kenya. Today, however, the country's forest cover has dwindled to slightly less than two percent. Increases in both urbanization and agricultural development, along with illegal logging, pose the greatest threats to the Rift Valley's tropical forests.

Grasslands

Nearly half the land surface of Africa is covered by some variety of savanna, grasslands with a sprinkling of trees. In the East African savannas, lions stalk their prey across grassy plains punctuated by scattered baobab and acacia trees. 

The biggest threats to this landscape include habitat fragmentation, fire suppression and invasive species.  Moreover, few alternatives exist for conserving non-park grasslands, so the Conservancy is working with the African Wildlife Foundation and other partners to establish and sustain private land trusts in Kenya and Tanzania. 

Rivers

Rising from a marshy bog in northwestern Zambia, the waters of the Zambezi River represent the lifeblood of the vast Kazungula region.  The people here fish, irrigate their crops and share these waters of life with lions, black rhinos and the richest concentration of elephants in Africa. 

As part of its collaboration with the African Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy is bringing the Zambezi into its Great Rivers Partnership to capitalize on shared conservation efforts involving major rivers in Brazil, China and the United States.

Nature picture credits (left to right): Farm along Zambezi River, Zambia © David Banks/TNC; Giraffe drinking in the Serengeti, Tanzania © Gwynn Crichton/TNC.