Monetizing the Unrealized Economic Value of Africa’s Protected Area System: A System at Risk 

Africa hosts 33% of all global biodiversity. Africa’s natural heritage and ecosystem services have largely been secured through an expansive continental network of protected areas. However, these areas are at risk from a suite of escalating threats including habitat conversion and poaching, and the protected area authorities do not have the adequate resources required to manage Africa’s conservation estate and mitigate threats. A majority of Africa’s protected area authorities are underfunded and reliable on external funding. While the exact financial gap might be debated, it is widely recognized that protected areas need a reliable source of funding to maintain their daily management operations, meet conservation targets and provide quality visitor experiences where appropriate, and that the current funding available is wholly inadequate. This presentation will highlight the gap in protected area finance, the ramifications of reliance on donor funding and flagship species and parks, and how AWF is working to support protected area authorities in maximizing the economic potential of their parks.  

Speaker Bio

Kathleen H. Fitzgerald, AWF Vice President for Land Conservation, oversees AWF’s land portfolio, which includes protected area planning, management, expansion and finance. Kathleen has more than 20 years' experience directing landscape-scale conservation and community engagement. She lives in Nairobi, Kenya and has been based in Africa for a decade. Since joining AWF, Kathleen has helped establish community conservancies, secure wildlife corridors, facilitated co-management agreements and helped improve management of protected areas and community lands. She is well published, recently contributing a chapter on the role of protected areas in Island Press’s Book Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness, the Foundation for Conservation.