South Africa-based nonprofit African Parks has announced a $1 billion action plan to manage 30 protected areas by 2030. The NGO currently manages 22 protected areas across 12 African countries. Speaking at a summit in September, African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead said the action plan would allow the group “to scale up existing efforts to manage 30 of Africa’s most critical protected areas by the end of the decade.” This would help meet the global “30 by 30” biodiversity target to preserve 30% of land and waters by 2030, the NGO noted in a press release. The $1 billion funding is not yet secured, African Parks media manager Helen Hancock told Mongabay in an email. But the organization has the “experience, skills, and the will of many African governments and people to deliver against this plan,” she said. A key objective of the action plan is to focus on “anchor areas” identified by the NGO. These are African protected areas that harbor “globally significant biodiversity to provide invaluable ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, clean air and fresh water, while contributing to stability, food security and socio-economic benefits for millions of people,” Hancock said. Of the 161 anchor areas identified by African Parks, Hancock said only 69 have management strategies while the rest face “severe threats.” “We believe that our tried-and-tested model across 12 countries, 22 parks and 20 million hectares [49.4 million acres], together with over two decades of experience and the ability to scale, offers the best chance of…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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