The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Letter from The Director

Support the Africa Program!

We need your help to foster effective partnerships—to secure the well-being of African people and protect, enhance and restore some of the most extraordinary habitats on Earth.

David Banks and his wife in Ghana
David Banks and his wife, Joey, in Ghana, 1990.

David Banks and Sanjayan Muttulingam in Botswana
David Banks (right) with Sanjayan in Botswana.

Go Deeper

How We Work - The Nature Conservancy works across several habitat types in Africa, including grasslands, aridlands, forests, oceans, and rivers. Learn more about them in our How We Work section.

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I first traveled to Africa nearly 16 years ago when my wife and I volunteered with the Peace Corps. Planting trees with a small community in Ghana changed our lives—and led me to a career in conservation.

My work with The Nature Conservancy has since taken me from Indiana’s densely populated prairies to, most recently, the Alaskan wilderness. But Africa still feels like home, and I’m excited and hopeful about leading our new Africa Program.

North Americans often think of Africa as one place, but how many places on Earth are so diverse? Floating down the Zambezi River, for instance, one can spend hours watching hippos and elephants, or venturing into flooded sloughs to catch tiger fish alongside Goliath herons.

Africa’s diversity of people and politics, however, is daunting. Ghana is as different from South Africa as Alaska is from France. One of the Conservancy’s greatest challenges will be finding common ground among such widely divergent views.

To be successful, our Africa Program must have a solid foundation, yet evolve rapidly in harmony with the following principles:

Learn from others. Although we bring more than 50 years of conservation history, we are still new to Africa and have a lot to learn.
Apply our conservation process. Set priorities, develop strategies, take action and measure success—these are essential steps everywhere we work. Our initial targeted landscapes—including grasslands of Kenya and Tanzania, the Kunene in northern Namibia, and the Zambezi River—will advance global conservation of grasslands, forests, deserts and freshwater systems.
Work through partners. As our programs grow, so must our list of partners. We are working closely with the African Wildlife Foundation, Green Belt Movement, Wildlife Conservation Society, Jane Goodall Institute, Round River Conservation Studies and other organizations with established connections in critical places.
Commit to places and people. We get results from investing in good people on the ground. Whether it takes a thousand cups of coffee, a few hundred calabashes of pito, or 10 years of shared ugale, cultivating local relationships is the recipe for success in Africa.
Capitalize on expertise. Many Conservancy staff and volunteers possess a wealth of experience and skills from living and working in our priority places. We must identify ways to apply their energy and talent to our work in Africa.
Build the base. People are excited to support our new Africa program. Together, we can build on this momentum and secure our long-term programs with reliable funding.

Since leaving Ghana 14 years ago, I have traveled and worked in Africa several times. Threats to wildlife and habitat have clearly grown, but I’ve also sensed a renewed commitment to conservation.

Success will take time—and many shared bowls of fufu and palm wine. The African people are more committed than ever to protecting their home, and I look forward to working with our new partners. I hope you’ll join us and help protect the Great Places of Africa.

David Banks
Director
Africa Program

Nature picture credits (left to right): Photo © David Banks/TNC (Zambezi River); Photo © Gwynn Crichton/TNC Male lion in the Serengeti ; Photo © David Banks/TNC; Photo © Scott Simon/TNC.