The government of Chad has signed a 10-year deal with the U.S.-based NGO Sahara Conservation to manage the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve (OROAFR), the group announced July 11. The OROAFR is the largest protected area in Chad, at nearly 80,000 square kilometers (almost 31,000 square miles), around three times the size of Rwanda.  “It’s obviously very big, and its value is not only in its biological value, but in its cultural value as well with the human dimensions of the reserve,” Tim Woodfine, CEO of Sahara Conservation, told Mongabay by phone.  The deal adds to a growing list of public-private partnerships managing protected areas in Africa. The South Africa-based NGO African Parks has agreements to run nearby Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve in northeastern Chad and Zakouma National Park in the southern part of the country. The OROAFR is a mix of grasslands and desert ecosystems and hosts several endangered species, including the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) and scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah). Drought and settlement expansion are some challenges it’s faced in recent years. Founded in 2004, Sahara Conservation largely focuses on Chad and neighboring Niger. The group was the driving force behind the reintroduction of scimitar-horned oryx into the OROAFR, which had previously been poached to local extinction. Starting in 2016, the NGO worked with zoos and private owners in the United Arab Emirates to bring 300 oryx into the reserve, a population that’s since grown to 600. In 2023, the IUCN, the global conservation authority, changed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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