Chad — consistently ranked among the world's least developed nations — faces extreme animal welfare challenges rooted in poverty, chronic conflict, climate catastrophe, and the near-total absence of formal welfare infrastructure. Yet Chad's vast pastoral traditions represent one of Africa's most significant human-animal relationships, with millions of cattle, camels, sheep, and goats central to the livelihoods and culture of a majority of the population.
Chad's 17+ million people inhabit a landlocked country spanning Saharan desert in the north, Sahel in the center, and Sudan savanna in the south. The country has experienced near-continuous conflict since independence — including civil wars, the Darfur spillover, Boko Haram insurgency around Lake Chad, and ongoing regional instability. Chad hosts over 1 million refugees from Sudan, Central African Republic, and other countries, adding enormous pressure to already strained resources.
Lake Chad — once one of Africa's largest lakes — has shrunk approximately 90% since the 1960s due to climate change, irrigation extraction, and drought. This ecological catastrophe has destroyed the lake's fisheries (once supporting millions of people), dried wetlands that sustained wildlife and pastoralists, and generated resource competition and conflict across the Lake Chad Basin (spanning Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon). The welfare consequences for both humans and animals have been immense: fishing communities destitute, pastoral communities competing for dwindling water and pasture, and the aquatic and waterbird species that depended on the lake severely reduced.
Chad has one of Africa's largest camel populations, central to the livelihoods of northern Sahelian and Saharan communities. Camels serve as transport animals, milk producers, and wealth stores in contexts where no other animal could survive. Traditional camel herding involves sophisticated welfare knowledge — Chadian camel herders understand their animals' needs profoundly — but resource scarcity, drought, and disease (particularly camel trypanosomiasis/surra) cause significant welfare impacts on working camels.
Chad's cattle herd — estimated at 30 million — is central to the country's agricultural economy and cultural identity. The cattle-herding Fulani, Arab, and other pastoral groups move vast herds seasonally across the Sahel, following rainfall patterns in one of the world's most demanding pastoral environments. Traditional management provides reasonable welfare in good years; climate change and conflict increasingly mean there are no "good years" for Chadian pastoralists.
Chad's Zakouma National Park — once devastated by elephant poaching — has become one of Africa's most remarkable conservation success stories under the management of African Parks since 2010. Elephant populations have grown from approximately 450 (2010) to over 1,000. Lions, leopards, Derby's eland, and diverse bird species have also recovered. Zakouma demonstrates that even in extremely challenging governance environments, intensive conservation management can produce dramatic wildlife welfare and conservation outcomes.
Chad's animal welfare improvement pathway requires long-term investment in both conflict resolution and climate adaptation. Near-term priorities: support FAO livestock emergency programs for conflict-affected pastoralists, expand African Parks model to additional Chadian protected areas, address Lake Chad ecological restoration (a multinational challenge requiring international cooperation), and document pastoral welfare knowledge that may be lost as traditional systems disintegrate. The Zakouma success story demonstrates that meaningful improvement is possible even in Chad's extremely difficult context — it requires sustained commitment and innovative management approaches.