Welcome to Green Rising – Call it the oldest part of Africa’s green economy if you like. Conservation has been practised in organised form for a century on the continent. 

• On 21 April 1925, Virunga in eastern Congo became Africa's first national park.  

Yet, conservation today is increasingly a different animal from what it was during the 20th century. It’s not just nature that’s changing… but its guardians too.

The future of conservation is marked by three key trends. To keep winning in the face of ever steeper odds, its practitioners need to master:

1. New technology

2. New funding

3. New community relations

Technology: Just like most other human endeavours, new technologies from AI to robotics hold enormous potential in conservation but also threaten to leave behind those who ignore them.

• New tools seem to appear every week – the latest being discussed here. 

• Technology rarely replaces humans. "It will never tell you why," says Mike Korchinsky, founder of Wildlife Works.

• Instead tech requires better training and more sophisticated processes.

Funding: The cost of conservation is rising with Africa’s growing human footprint. Yet governments seem ever less inclined to provide funding.

• Instead, focus is shifting to private donors with different expectations – as well as new instruments derived from the commercial sector such as carbon markets. 

• Again, more specialised professionals are needed to access new sources of money.

Community relations: The politics of remote places in many parts of Africa has changed significantly. Once top-down, voices from the bottom up have become more powerful.

• Few conservation projects today can succeed without local support, a situation not entirely new but qualitatively different from generations past. 

• Conservation has stopped being the preserve of the few. Whether it is for reasons of justice or due to a search for prosperity, protected landscapes can no longer exclude human populations, and that requires more sophisticated management.

• The term "community conservation" is perhaps overused. But few disagree that only by working with local people can wildlife be protected now. 

Two once globally known conservationists working in Africa are pictured here. 

Jane Goodall (left) and Dian Fossey had movies made about them long ago, imbuing them with a romantic notion of the improvisational adventurer.  

• Working in the field in the second half of the last century, they had little use for or knowledge of budgeting and HR.

• Many of the organisations that grew out of that era held on to a slapdash culture until relatively recently (and some may do to this day).

The charismatic leaders of that time achieved a lot, not least gaining global attention and instituting high scientific practices. 

Yet their legacy also includes this: Most conservation organisations in Africa know far more about the natural world than about the professional one in which they operate.

The sector still lacks many things successful industries take for granted:

• Commercially available databases

• Specialist recruitment agencies

• Financial modelling tools

Structural factors accelerating the trend towards professionalisation include:

• The size of many organisations is growing as they mature and challenges multiply, making low-touch oversight less feasible.

• National parks are becoming increasingly crowded places… Lots of NGOs and agencies now often share the same territory and need modes of formal collaboration.

• As conservation grows it is also becoming more specialised. Occupying niches tends to require more professional sophistication. 

Some conservation organisations on the continent are now leaning into explicit professionalisation. 

• African Parks, responsible for 24 national parks (see map above), embraces standard operating procedures, governance structures and law enforcement protocols.

Many more outfits are on a long journey to follow suit, and not just the smaller ones. 

What’s standing in the way? A dichotomy seems to come to the fore: 

• Larger organisations based far from protected areas are mastering funding and technology yet struggle with professional engagement of local communities. 

• Meanwhile, smaller organisations closer to the ground experience the reverse. 

Professionalisation, however, does not mean corporatisation. Frank Pope, CEO of non-profit Save The Elephants, says: “Too many conservation organisations fall into the trap of thinking they are corporations and that their effectiveness, the bottom line of how much they raise and spend, is a proxy for their effectiveness, which it is not. For us success is in achieving external goals, that are often shared with other groups. We can't be measured by the same yardstick as corporations.”

Some conservationists have described current shifts in the sector, perhaps with some regret, as leaning less heavily on passion.

This may be accelerated by the growing number of refugees from historically less passionate industries such as finance and consulting who are seeking purpose or meaning by becoming conservationists. 

The sector is at a transition moment. A decade ago, a field biologist may have made a radio call to an ops manager to reach a decision. A decade from now, productivity tools and governance structures will likely be native to many organisations. 

We live in an exciting time, says Mr Pope. Conservation is maturing. 

Number of the week 

… is the increase in Kenya’s wind power electricity generation in the first half of 2025. Wind turbines supplied a record 161 million kWh in June, helping stabilize the grid despite a 3.8% drop in total generation.

Network corner

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