Africa Conservation Timeline

“In stark contrast to its northern relative, the recovery of the southern white rhino sub-species is one of the world's greatest conservation success stories, according to conservation group WWF. In the late 1800s it was considered extinct, but a small population of perhaps 50 animals was rediscovered in Natal, South Africa. The subsequent creation of protected areas and breeding rhinos on private ranches has been a spectacular success. Though poaching is still a problem, the population has swelled to 11,000 and growing, making this the most numerous of all rhino sub-species. The success can partly be attributed to allowing rhinos to be bought and sold for tourism and sport hunting. "Giving them an economic value caused them to bounce back like crazy," says Robinson at the WCS.”

Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmental activist and member of the Kenyan parliament . In 2004, she became the first African woman to win the "Nobel Peace Prize", for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace; for years of work with women to reverse African deforestation. The Green Belt Movement worked in concert with the National Council of Women of Kenya to provide such services to Kenyan women and villages including: family planning, nutrition using traditional foods, and leadership skills to improve the status of the women. The movement paid the women for each tree planted that lived past three months. Under Maathai's direction in its first 15 years, the program employed more than 50, 000 women and planted more than 10 million trees. Other African nations adopted similar programs based on the Green Belt Movement model.By now the Movement had resulted in the planting of 30 million trees, had spread to 30 African countries as well as the United States, and had provided income for 80,000 people."

Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her tree-planting campaign the Green Belt Movement. "Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize... Mrs. Maathai is best known for a campaign called the Green Belt Movement that began in the 1970s and planted tens of millions of trees across Africa to slow deforestation. The movement grew to include projects to preserve biodiversity, educate people about their environment and promote the rights of women and girls."

World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg promotes environmental protection, economic and social development as interdependent and mutually reinforcing.

“Few people realize that the Kalahari sands represent the largest uninterrupted expanse of sand anywhere on Earth, stretching from the Congo north of the equator to south of the Gariep River in South Africa. In the far south especially, rain is scarce and natural freestanding water almost entirely absent. Yet plants, animals and the last remaining clans of San or Bushman hunter-gatherers still live in this hostile world, having adapted to it in unique and fascinating ways. Fortunately this desert is well-conserved: two enormous game reserves, the Kalahari National Park (KGNP) in Botswana and the Gemsbok National Park (GNP) in South Africa have recently been amalgamated into southern Africa's first transfrontier conservation area, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. This uninterrupted expanse of protected area covers eight million hectares - and the Kalahari lion is unquestionably its premier icon.”

A memorandum of understanding was signed for the creation of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in 2000. "At close to 3,600,000 ha in extent, the Great Limpopop Transfrontier Park (GLTP) represents one of the crowning jewels of conservation efforts in Africa. Broadly categorized as lowland flat savannah, a diverse mix of landscape types contribute toward the mosaic of habitats that supports a wealth of biotic diversity in the GLTP."

Munyawana Leopard Project in Phinda Private Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is established.

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in collaboration with the Malagasy government, launched Project Angonoka. PA works to preserve a section of northwestern Madagascar that is home to ploughshare tortoise. Without conservation efforts, the turtle would surely be extinct.

The Eastern African Action Plan, also referred to as the Nairobi Convention, was designed to promote environmentally sound sustainable development and management of marine and coastal systems in the region.

At 49,768 km² Namib-Naukluft is the largest game park in Africa and the fourth largest in the world.

Desertification Conference: The United Nations Conference on Desertification, held in Nairobi, Kenya, raised awareness of desertification and produced an international plan of action.

While Gombe Park is the smallest national park in Tanzania, it was made famous by Jane Goodall, whose pioneering behavioral research was conducted on the chimpanzee populations in the park.

"Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's biggest and oldest game reserve and is named after a local Nhanzwa chief, Hwange Rosumbani... The 14,650km² park (roughly the size of Belgium) consists mostly of savanna, scrubland and scattered woodland and is considered to be one of the greatest conservation areas in Africa. Just two hours drive from Victoria Falls it shelters over 108 mammal species, the highest diversity of mammals of any National Park in the world... Over 400 species of birds have been recorded in Hwange including around 50 different types of raptor. It is home to one of the largest elephant herds on earth who utilize Hwange National Park as well as Chobe National Park for feeding."

"The much maligned venomous cane toads earned their bad reputation shortly after being released into the Australian ecology in 1935 with the hope that they would control the destructive cane beetle population. They turned out to be failures at controlling beetles, but remarkably successful at reproducing and spreading themselves....They now number well into the millions, and their still expanding range covers thousands of square miles in northeastern Australia."