Entrepreneurs in the Wild
The dispiriting story of a club of white benefactors in Africa: how nature parks have been corralled by modern imperialism
African Parks is considered a great success story in conservation. The organisation, founded by Paul Fentener van Vlissingen and supported by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, has taken over full authority from the state in more than twenty African nature reserves. It manages an area comparable to Britain, with support from western governments, the European Union and philanthropic billionaires. But all is not what it seems.
Non-FictionPrint
Original title
Ondernemers in het wild
Author
Olivier van Beemen
Year of publication
2025
Publisher
Prometheus
Page count
328
Contact for translation rights
Lotte de Boer
Prometheus
foreignrights@pbo.nl
With this book, Olivier van Beemen has delivered a clever piece of investigative journalism by taking on a rich, neocolonial company that unscrupulously extends its power through nature reserves in Africa. (...) Despite active and even intimidating opposition, he kept his course. The result is a thorough and at the same time excitingly constructed investigative story. Olivier van Beemen has amply succeeded in unlocking a shady world for a wide audience. A classic journalistic tour de force.
Jury report Brusseprijs 2025
An important book. Van Beemen presents the results of his painstaking research in the form of a well-told page-turner about the ugly side of nature conservation by military means.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Anyone who likes crime novels will love this book, because this elaborate investigative research reads like a very exciting business thriller with the essential difference that this story about this NGO operating in Africa is true …
Deutschlandfunk
Olivier van Beemen
Olivier van Beemen (b. 1979) is an investigative journalist and writer.