The Nature Conservancy’s Africa Program focuses on large intact places with high biodiversity value, where natural ecological processes persist and traditional human livelihoods depend on healthy lands and waters for their survival.

Our conservation approach centers on areas where communal and private conservation efforts buffer government protected areas and play a critical role in sustaining natural process. Well over half of Africa is considered pastoral land; therefore long-term conservation success is only possible when local communities realize benefits from these areas.

Our projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Gabon and the Western Indian Ocean concentrate on areas where we have a high chance of success. This enables us to envision a future Africa where habitats and people can adapt to multiple pressures thus sustaining the diversity of the natural world while improving the livelihoods of people who depend on its resources.

We work in partnership with government and local NGOs, sharing technical tools, skills and resources, to increase the scale of their impact and implement solutions that preserve nature while improving people’s lives. 

We have been working in Africa since 2006 and today we operate in six countries; Gabon, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia. 

Key Reports for Africa Program

Africa Region Continental Prioritization and Decision Support. In order to achieve maximum impact on a large, complex, and highly threatened continent with globally significant biological diversity, the Conservancy’s Africa Regional Team identified a long-tem vision to narrow the focus of their efforts over the next decade. A continental assessment was conducted to help support programmatic decision necessary to refine and implement this vision. To key question emerged: First where are the priority geographies that bet advance this vision? Second, what information can help to evaluate new opportunities within these geographies for this young and growing program? Read the full report.