Prince Harry has quietly returned to important business after a series of controversies marred a charity close to his heart.
The Duke of Sussex came out this week to support the scandal-hit African Parks-scale conservation event, alongside Rob Walton, president of the African Parks Foundation of America, Jordan Rose Walton, the Phoenix Sun’s Devin Booker, Khaman Maluach and others in Arizona.
The charity had launched its billion-dollar Conservation at Scale Campaign at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, and Harry came to drive the message.
“This five-year effort is designed to ensure and expand effective management of Africa’s most critical protected areas, strengthening our existing portfolio, expanding into new priority landscapes and building long-term conservation capacity across the continent,” Harry said during the event.
“We came together tonight to support a great cause, the African Parks Network with Rob and Jordan Walton, Prince Harry and others, but it reminded me of something bigger: when exceptional human beings come together with heart, generosity and purpose… incredible things happen.”
Harry, like his estranged brother Prince William, has a close connection to Africa and is passionate about making a difference in the region.
King Charles’ youngest son serves on the board of African Parks, a non-profit conservation charity, and has been involved with it since 2016. Unfortunately, it is also tainted with shocking allegations.
Reports published in 2024 accused African park rangers of beating, waterboarding and raping locals to prevent them from accessing their ancestral forests, which are now in a conservation area.
Additionally, in late 2025, Chad abruptly severed its 15-year partnership with African Parks, expelling the NGO from its protected reserves in the country.
However, African Parks had issued a lengthy statement acknowledging that “human rights abuses have occurred in some incidents and we deeply regret the pain and suffering caused to the victims.”
They noted that they are “incorporating safeguards into all of our operations.”
