Earlier this year, the British media became obsessed with African Parks, the conservation and anti-poaching NGO. Several African Parks rangers have been accused of rape, and in a separate issue, AP rangers have been accused of torture or too-aggressive, too-violent methods against poachers. At the time of the accusations becoming public, African Parks released a statement saying that they’ve been following up and investigating the claims and accusations for some time, and that at least one “victims’ organization” was refusing to provide any information to them. Still, African Parks’ investigations are ongoing.
It felt, initially, that the story picked up steam in the British media because Prince Harry was the president of AP for six years, and then he was promoted to a position on the board. The British media must destroy and exploit everything Harry touches, you see. Then something incredibly curious happened – the Times had a suspicious article which turned the African Parks situation into Prince William-vs-Prince Harry. It seems that William hates that African Parks wanted Harry on their board, and that Harry has all of these close associations with billionaire donors, and that Harry wouldn’t agree that Africa belongs to William. It certainly shed some light as to how and why the British media was amplifying all of these AP stories and why so many “sources” have been acting as if Harry personally authorized billionaire-funded hit squads to carry out atrocities. Well, here’s a follow-up – a Dutch journalist has done a three-year investigation into African Parks and the summary of three years of legwork is that Harry should step down from the board. Super-weird!
The Duke of Sussex is likely to face pressure to step down from the board of an African conservation charity after new allegations of abuse carried out by its armed rangers emerged, including the use of a torture method known as “the swing”.
First-hand testimonies about the alleged brutality meted out by staff managed and paid by African Parks appear in a new book based on a three-year investigation into the organisation, which is funded by British aid, celebrities and American billionaires.
Entrepreneurs in the Wild by Olivier van Beemen includes dozens of incidents of alleged abuse from interviews conducted with victims and those who claim to have perpetrated the abuse, including existing and former African Parks staff.
Prince Harry was the president of the organisation for six years before being promoted to the governing board of directors last year. His new duties include the shared responsibility for the organisation’s policy and supervising its management of 22 national parks in partnerships with governments in a dozen African countries.
After the prince’s acrimonious split from the royal family, Van Beemen was told that senior figures at African Parks debated whether he remained a useful connection. “Didn’t these controversies surrounding the prince pose a risk to the organisation?” was the question that triggered the discussion, a source told the author.
African Parks’s pride at having a “business approach to conservation” was one of the reasons Van Beemen decided to look closer at its ambition, structures and methods. Pay deals included bonuses in the event of armed confrontations with poachers, and confiscations of meat and weapons. African Parks confirmed “primes” — or incentives — were standard practices to motivate rangers.
Van Beemen said: “My investigation shows that African Parks is an opaque organisation with numerous human rights allegations made against them, including torture and rape, but is not open to external criticism. I think Prince Harry and others on the board should question the organisation’s model, its practices and governance and reconsider their own roles.”
Responding to the book’s publication, African Parks said the author was biased and said his book was “deeply flawed”. It said the investigation into alleged torture and rape highlighted by Survival International “is well under way”. The charity added: “African Parks has been in operation for more than 20 years, with long-term agreements with 12 different sovereign governments and numerous traditional authorities. We have received funding from most of the global institutions … all of which require detailed vetting processes, as well as intermittent grant audits.” The Duke of Sussex was approached for comment.
“I think Prince Harry and others on the board should question the organisation’s model, its practices and governance and reconsider their own roles” – I genuinely wonder if Van Beemen or the Times has even asked for the names of the other board members or even suggested that they should resign. This is really strange as well: “After the prince’s acrimonious split from the royal family, Van Beemen was told that senior figures at African Parks debated whether he remained a useful connection. ‘Didn’t these controversies surrounding the prince pose a risk to the organisation?’ was the question that triggered the discussion, a source told the author.” So… what are these people actually doing here? In 2020, they thought Harry was surrounded by controversy because he left a toxic situation in England, and “sources” are trying to convince this guy that Harry could have actually been fired from African Parks because of it???
Here’s the thing – I genuinely believe that there have been serious incidents of torture, etc. This is an NGO operating across twelve countries, twenty-two protected areas and they have a staff in the thousands. They’re battling jihadists, bloodthirsty poachers and billion-dollar corporations. Of course everything is not going to operate perfectly and within the law. I get that, and I believe that AP is investigating, and there should be investigations at the local level as well. But all of the reporting on this has been bizarrely focused on Harry, and specifically on Harry’s relationship with his family. The reporting is what’s making me question the authenticity of these accusations. It feels like there’s a decent chance (certainly a non-zero chance) that the bulk of this is some kind of unhinged scheme cooked up in a palace.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.