If you need to know something that isn’t in our list of Frequently Asked Questions, please use the Contact Us page to get in touch and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

General questions about the project are nearer the top.  Questions specific to volunteer drivers are a bit further down.

What exactly is the point of MAPA?
MAPA is part of a much larger exercise to put all of Africa’s protected areas on the map – literally and figuratively.

This continent suffers from being almost invisible to most people. Wildlife, and particularly the communities that live alongside that wildlife, do not get the attention that they deserve. Despite this, several African countries have built substantial tourism industries on the back of less than a hundred conservation areas. The average person can name just a handful of those and we are planning to put 1,000 on the map.

What is MAPA actually going to do?
MAPA is going to try to accurately map the boundaries, roads and infrastructure of approximately 1,000 of the most important protected areas in Africa.

Then we are going to put that information on the web for travellers, students, researchers, journalists and armchair conservationists.

This is a first step in making Africa’s Protected Areas more visible and accessible to the world.

Has this been done before?
No. Creating accurate, detailed digital maps of all the Protected Areas on a continent (53 countries in Africa’s case) has never been done before.

Who’s paying for it?
At the moment no-one is – the data is being gathered for free by the overlanding community who use GPS maps created by Tracks4Africa, a South African company. We have been slowly publicising the initiative (we haven’t got the bucks for a big launch) and now GPS users from all over Africa are offering up their tracks and waypoints.  It looks as if this is going to be the most amazing community collaboration.

We are actively seeking a major sponsor and if we manage to secure one or two we will be able to accelerate the rate at which we can work.

I have heard that Google are involved?
Google have been incredibly supportive from the earliest stages of the project and continue to help.   This partnership is working at a number of levels and we hope it will continue to develop.  In the fullness of time we hope to have all the MAPA data up on Google Earth and the Californian office is also helping us with a number of technical mapping issues.  We are also getting support from Google Mobile with running our blogs and with mobile communications.  The Google office in Nairobi is also part of our support infrastructure.  Google are keen to stay involved in the project.

How can I get involved?
In many ways!  Click here to see how.

How has MAPA chosen the 1,000 Protected Areas it will be mapping?
For a full explanation look at the What’s a Protected Area? page.

Do these thousand Protected Areas protect all of Africa’s wildlife?
No. There is certainly more wildlife – plants and animals – outside of formal reserves than inside them (think of the Central African rainforests), and conservationists would like to see more protected areas in many parts of Africa. However, these reserves are the heart of the existing conservation network and of the tourist networks which support them.

How long is the project going to run for?
As long as it takes. We think we could do the first pass within 3 years if we get the right funding. However, new parks and changes to existing ones will ensure the need to keep updates going.

Who gets all the data?
The data belongs to MAPA which is a non-profit company. It will be freely available on the internet for everyone to see.

The whole point of doing this is to benefit Africa’s people and wildlife. So, the data will also be licensed, on a non-profit basis, for the benefit of conservation and community development. Basically, any conservation and humanitarian organisations working towards those goals will be given access to the data.

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