President Paul Kagame, on August 22, received Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, who is in the country on a working visit in his capacity as the President of African Parks.

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that manages national parks and protected areas on behalf of governments and in collaboration with local communities across Africa.

According to his spokesperson, Harry is currently touring Africa with a group of U.S. officials, conservationists and philanthropists as they visit different protected wildlife and nature areas

It manages 19 national parks in 11 countries on the continent, across almost 15 million hectares, the largest amount of conserved area.

The Government of Rwanda has agreements with African Parks to manage Akagera and Nyungwe national parks.

The 20-year agreement signed in 2020 allowed the organisation to manage Nyungwe National Park, home to a quarter of Africa’s primates – 13 species including chimpanzees and the extremely rare Hamlyn’s and L’Hoest’s monkeys.

Africa Parks has also been managing the Akagera National Park, which is the country’s biggest and the organisation has been at the forefront of restocking the park where animals like lions and rhinos have been translocated there.

It also hosts more than 1,000 plants, over 90 mammals and 300 bird species recorded, of which many are only found in the park.

Prince Harry has been serving as President of African Parks since 2017 and is currently assisting the organization to grow to 30 parks under management by 2030.

He is the third member of the United Kingdom royal family to visit Rwanda in recent times, following the visit of Prince Charles – Harry’s father – and his wife Camilla, who were in the country for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in June.