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Conservation groups in sub-Saharan Africa, notably in the Sudano-Sahelian belt, have not ignored these threats and have taken it upon themselves, with the help of both government and private donors, to create what we call “conservation protection enclaves,” or CPEs. Staffed with security professionals, fully equipped with aviation assets, vehicles, clinics, schools and alternative livelihood schemes, CPEs were artificially created to help preserve wildlife species and maintain a notion of territorial integrity for the countries within which they operate. These CPEs act as semi-autonomous regions, at times wholly privatized by certain conservation groups and at times managed in tandem with the local authorities. In a region plagued with continuous armed conflict, trafficking of various contraband and increasing growth of radical Islamic groups such as the Nigerian-based Boko Haram or the Mali-based al-Qaeda in Maghreb, CPEs create opportunity for stability and sovereignty, essentially acting as a state within a state both for humans and wildlife.

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