The Africa Keystone Protected Area Partnership is a bold new collaboration to permanently safeguard the ecosystems most vital to Africa’s biodiversity and socioeconomic future.

This partnership aims to unite African communities and governments with leading NGOs and funders, answering a call to action from Africa’s leaders.

2022

African leaders issue the Kigali Call to Action for People and Nature, affirming the importance of protected and conserved areas.
2023

Eleven Heads of State followed with the Miombo Forest Initiative, pledging to protect one of the world’s great ecological treasures.
Today

In response, we welcome you to join our transformational effort to conserve not only critical landscapes but, with them, Africa’s future.

Introduction to the partnership

After 18 months of rigorous analysis of over 8,000 protected areas across the continent, leading scientists and conservation experts identified 162 Keystone Protected Areas: Vast, biodiverse ecosystems essential to Africa’s environmental and economic well-being.

We call these large, biodiverse areas “Keystone Protected Areas” because without them, the broader arch of nature-based conservation and economies cannot succeed.

Each of these critical landscapes is, on average, the size of Yellowstone National Park, and they are irreplaceable for nature and the millions of people who live in and around them: