South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism on Tuesday announced a partnership with African Parks Network-a non-profit organization to protect the largest land mammal migration in history.
The partnership aims to protect up to six million animals on the east bank of the White Nile, a tributary of the White Nile.
Charles Wells, Chief Operating Officer of African Parks Network said the partnership with the government will safeguard the migratory species that rely on the ecosystem to survive.
“Through a partnership between the government of South Sudan, the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, African Parks and the Wilderness Project, we have conducted the most extensive aerial survey to date of wildlife in the region known as the Boma-Badingilo-Jonglei landscape,” Wells said during the release of the findings of the Comprehensive Aerial Survey in Juba.
He noted that the results of the survey conducted from April 2023 to January 2024 have officially quantified the greatest large mammal migration on earth.
Wells reiterated the commitment of African Parks to continue working with the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism and the local communities to protect this vital ecosystem for the benefit of the nation.
“As this migration crosses the border into Ethiopia, we should also coordinate our efforts to safeguard these shared national assets regionally. Traditionally, local communities sustainably harvest the migration antelope species for their own use,” he disclosed.
Wells said that the long-term conservation and protection of this migration landscape can only be achieved through the active participation and engagement with government institutions at national, state and district levels, as well as traditional authorities.
He stressed the need for effective management including support of sustainable development opportunities that provide people with incentives to conserve rather than exterminate wildlife.
In August 2022, African Parks and the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism signed a 10-year agreement for the management of Boma and Bandingilo National Parks.
The deal worth 10 million U.S. dollars aims to ensure conservation organization, to rehabilitate and manage national parks to spur tourism.
It will ensure proper protection of wildlife species and improve infrastructure in potential wildlife in National Parks.
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas in partnership with governments and local communities.
