When the British royal first became involved with African Parks in 2016, he served as a prominent figure supporting awareness on elephant conservation.
asserted
he → become → conservation
Later, the son of King Charles III became president of the organization before joining its board in 2023.
asserted
son → become → 2023
But reports indicate that in just a few weeks' time, he will step down from his position at African Parks.
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he → indicate → Parks
The NGO claims that the move is merely part of a reshuffling of its board.
uncertain
move → claim → board
But Dutch journalist and author Olivier van Beemen, who has extensively investigated the South Africa-based wildlife conservation group, believes the association between Harry and African Parks has increasingly become a burden — for both sides.
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association → investigate → sides
Organization and Harry 'see each other as a liability'
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Organization → see → liability
Harry's role was to mainly open doors for African Parks, van Beemen says.
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Beemen → open → Parks
His fame attracted media attention and helped the NGO gain access to potential donors.
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fame → attract → donors
But his notorious falling-out with his family increasingly failed to improve the organization's coffers and image.
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out → fail → coffers
At the same time, allegations of human rights abuses at African Parks made the prince's association with the organization increasingly problematic.
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association → make → organization
"I think they now see each other more as a liability," van Beemen told DW, stressing that the full story reaches far beyond a junior member of the royal family simply stepping down from a ribbon-cutting role.
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member → think → role
According to its own figures, African Parks manages 24 protected areas in 13 African countries, covering more than 20 million hectares.
uncertain
Parks → accord → hectares
By 2030, the organization aims to manage as many as 30 parks.
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organization → aim → parks
Its business model is known as delegated management: African governments hand over the long-term management of protected areas to the group.
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governments → know → group
The land formally remains state-owned.
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land → remain → ?
But the organization takes on wide-ranging responsibilities, including conservation, infrastructure, tourism and anti-poaching operations.
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organization → take → conservation
For African governments, this model offers a major advantage: African Parks brings international funding, expertise and personnel to protected areas that many states would otherwise struggle to manage on their own.
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states → offer → own
In order to achieve its objectives on the ground, African Parks employs a host of armed rangers across the continent, who are allowed to use indelicate methods if and when needed; in some cases, its influence even extends to managing border controls.
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influence → achieve → controls
"They take over the state's monopoly on the use of force within the park," says van Beemen, adding that some critics of the NGO have gone as far as describing African Parks as a "state within a state."
It is in this context that mounting allegations of human rights abuses have been recorded in recent years, with conservation efforts repeatedly coming into conflict with local communities.
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efforts → take → communities
The worst allegations of rights abuses emerged in 2023 at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo.
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allegations → emerge → Congo
Members of the indigenous Baka community reported violence, torture and sexual abuse at the hands of African Parks' rangers.
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Members → report → rangers
The NGO subsequently commissioned the London-based firm Omnia Strategy to investigate the allegations, resulting in African Parks eventually acknowledging certain instances of human rights abuses two years later — though the full investigation report was never made public.
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report → commission → abuses
According to van Beemen, the report was not even shown to the government of the Republic of Congo, despite African Parks operating there under an agreement with the government.
uncertain
Parks → accord → government
To this day, it remains unclear what exactly happened in Odzala-Kokoua, and how many people were affected.
uncertain
people → remain → Kokoua
African Parks has promised reforms while conceding past failures in its own systems and processes; still, it has remained highly intransparent about the details involved in the entire scandal, says van Beemen.
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Beemen → promise → scandal
Division over findings in Dutch book
The Dutch journalist has meanwhile published a book on the whole affair, titled "Beasts and Men."
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journalist → publish → affair
The volume won several awards in the Netherlands and has attracted international attention and acclaim.
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volume → win → attention
However, African Parks fundamentally rejects van Beemen's portrayal of the organization, saying his book contains "hundreds of factual inaccuracies" as well as "a similar number of deeply misleading statements."
Regarding the human rights abuse allegations, African Parks says some of the cases described by van Beemen had occurred outside the NGOs control.
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some → reject → control
At the same time, it stressed in a statement that it has a zero-tolerance policy toward abuse, and that there is training in place on human rights standards as well as a comprehensive complaints mechanism for transgressions.
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it → stress → transgressions
But as part of his research, van Beemen also spoke to several former rangers and people affected by conservation operations in several African countries, where he says he repeatedly encountered a fundamental problem perpetuated by African Parks: the loose definition of what constitutes poaching.
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what → speak → poaching
According to the accounts he collected, the NGO also treats some locals who hunt animals for their own consumption as poachers, rather than using that term exclusively to describe professional poachers who kill rhinos or elephants for international criminal networks.
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who → accord → networks
Van Beemen said that during his research in Zambia, former rangers told him about the brutal treatment the people taken into custody on such grounds can face.
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people → say → grounds
"This can involve beatings.
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This → involve → beatings
It can involve very serious torture," he told DW.
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he → involve → DW
The organization was founded by Dutch businessman Paul Fentener van Vlissingen, who — according to van Beemen — reportedly held Africans in low regard.
uncertain
who → found → regard
Among other things, he refused to accept the international economic sanctions against the South African apartheid system during the 1980s.
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he → refuse → 1980s
A former close associate of the founder told the Dutch journalist that at the top echolons of the organization, Africans were allegedly considered incapable of protecting their own natural resources because they lacked the money and management skills to do so.
uncertain
they → tell → money
In its early years, African Parks was headquartered in the Netherlands where according to van Beemen, employees would routinely look at maps of Africa and plan where the organization could take over additional parks.
uncertain
organization → headquarter → parks
"For me, it was very difficult not to think of the colonialists of earlier centuries looking at the same maps and searching for opportunities for colonial expansion," van Beemen told DW.
asserted
Beemen → think → DW
African Parks meanwhile has also rejected this particular characterization of its ethos, pointing at the many relevant contracts it has signed with African governments in good faith and with mutual respect.
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it → reject → respect
…and 4 more, not listed.
