The Chadian government has signed a 30-year deal with U.S.-based Sahara Conservation to manage the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, per Mongabay. The agreement covers 30,000 square miles of critical habitat for some of Africa's most threatened wildlife.
The massive protected area shelters endangered species including the scimitar-horned oryx and dorcas gazelle. These animals depend on the reserve's diverse ecosystems, from grasslands to desert landscapes, for survival and migration routes across Central Africa.
Local residents will monitor endangered species and manage sustainable tourism under the new partnership — an approach that will both create jobs and protect natural heritage.
Sahara Conservation has spent decades working with communities across Africa. The organization prioritizes approaches that benefit people and wildlife, noting that conservation only succeeds with local support. The 30-year timeline enables consistent funding and relationship building throughout the region, ensuring steady support for conservation programs protecting endangered species for future generations.
"We could not do things without widespread international and local collaboration," said Tim Woodfine, the CEO of Sahara Conservation, emphasizing how successful conservation requires partnerships across communities and borders.
Similar public-private partnerships have helped recover endangered species in Kenya's Maasai Mara and Namibia's community conservancies. Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim supports traditional pastoral communities that have coexisted with wildlife for centuries. Their knowledge of animal behavior and seasonal migration patterns will continue to be critical for conservation success, and tourism revenue will provide sustainable income alternatives to activities that might otherwise threaten endangered species in the region.
These ambitious conservation partnerships work to create real solutions for protecting vulnerable species, empowering local communities in the process.
"It's obviously very big, and its value is not only in its biological value but in its cultural value as well with the human dimensions of the reserve," Woodfine told Mongabay.
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