African Conservation Foundation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The African Conservation Foundation is working towards the protection and conservation of Africa's endangered wildlife and their habitats. Founded in 1999, ACF fills a unique niche by creating an Africa-wide network for information exchange and capacity building of conservation efforts in the region.
ACF's mission is to support and link African conservation initiatives, groups and NGOs, with the aim of strengthening their capacity, building partnerships and promoting effective communication and coordination of conservation efforts.
Its work is organised around 5 specific goals:
- 1. Linking conservation initiatives across the continent, and strengthening the networking capacities of research and conservation groups and NGOs.
- 2. Providing training, support and technical assistance for conservation groups and NGOs, particularly grassroots, in Africa.
- 3. Offering capacity support for sustainable community projects linked with conservation.
- 4. Serving as an educational resource centre for the general public, both within and outside of Africa.
- 5. Conducting on-the-ground conservation projects.
ACF's overall goal is to change the approach of the management and utilization of natural resources to one in which the needs of human development in the region are reconciled with nature conservation.
[edit] Activities
The organisation is involved in Cross River gorilla and chimpanzee research and rainforest conservation in South West Cameroon; tropical forest conservation in Kenya and Tanzania; and environmental education projects for schoolchildren in East and Central Africa.
The African Conservation Network project, a partnership between ACF and groups in Kenya, Cameroon, Somalia and Zambia, won the prestigious 2006 Stockholm Challenge Award.
The organisation is working together with Canadian artist Daniel Taylor (painter), on Art for Africa, a project designed to raise awareness and funds for the conservation of Africa's critically endangered wildlife species.
