Our Story

Forgotten Parks Foundation was established to restore and protect protected areas that have been neglected, isolated or heavily degraded over time.

Many national parks across Africa exist on paper but have lost their ecological function due to conflict, poaching, lack of management and limited long-term investment. These landscapes are often rich in biodiversity and critical for climate and water systems, yet they no longer receive the operational support required to survive.

Forgotten Parks Foundation focuses specifically on these overlooked ecosystems. The organisation works through long-term partnerships with national governments and conservation authorities, taking on shared responsibility for rehabilitation, professional park management and ecological restoration.

Rather than short-term projects, the foundation applies a system-based approach centred on three pillars:

• restoring natural ecosystems and ecological processes
• rebuilding wildlife populations through science-based rewilding
• supporting local communities to ensure long-term stability and shared benefit

The flagship project is Upemba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the foundation operates under a public-private partnership model together with the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN). The goal is not only to protect wildlife, but to restore one of Africa’s key ecological landscapes into a functioning, resilient system.

At its core, Forgotten Parks Foundation exists to ensure that parks once considered lost can recover and once again serve biodiversity, climate resilience and future generations.

Welcome to a Rising Forgotten Park