National Park · Rwanda · 112,000 hectares
Akagera National Park
The park that pays for itself.
Akagera National Park: the numbers, sourced
As of July 2026.
- 7 lions, 2015 — reintroduced from South Africa after total local extinction; the population has more than quadrupled. African Parks, 2015–present.
- 18 black rhino, 2017 — eastern black rhino returned after a ~10-year absence. African Parks, 2017.
- 70 white rhino, 2025 — translocated from South Africa in June 2025, after 30 introduced in 2021. Rwanda Development Board; African Parks, 2021–2025.
- ~10% → ~90% — of the park's costs covered by its own tourism revenue. African Parks, 2010–2019.
- 56,000+ visitors, US$4.7M — park visits and revenue, 97% from tourism. African Parks, 2024.
What was lost at Akagera National Park?
After the 1994 genocide, returning refugees resettled much of Akagera with cattle. The park was degraded and depleted; its lions were hunted out entirely, and by the 2000s the park had shrunk and gone quiet.
What brought it back?
In 2009 the Rwanda Development Board and African Parks signed a joint management agreement, with day-to-day management from 2010. Then the animals came back, one deliberate move at a time: seven lions from South Africa in July 2015 — the population has more than quadrupled since. Eighteen eastern black rhino in 2017, after a ten-year absence. Thirty southern white rhino in 2021, and in June 2025 a further seventy — one of the largest rhino translocations ever attempted (Rwanda Development Board and African Parks).
What is it like now?
Akagera is a Big Five park again, and it increasingly pays its own way: from covering roughly 10% of its costs from tourism in 2010 to about 90% self-financing by 2019. In 2024 the park welcomed over 56,000 visitors and earned over US$4.7 million, 97% of it from tourism (African Parks). No elephant, lion or rhino has been lost to poaching in over a decade.
Who does the work?
The turnaround is run by Rwandan rangers, trackers, guides and vets working under the joint RDB–African Parks management, with revenue-sharing flowing to the communities at the park edge. The park is the model African Parks points to when it says a recovered park can fund its own protection.
How do you visit Akagera National Park?
Stay inside the park: Ruzizi Tented Lodge is run by the park itself, and Magashi Camp (Wilderness) sits on the northern lakes. Every park night is a line in the budget that made Akagera self-funding.
Or have the whole journey designed for you — Cape to Nile designs custom African safaris.
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