Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 4 July 2017

Angola slowly opens to conservationists after long civil war

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA to welcome any vehicles
Associated Press driving towards the house.”
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The National Geograph-
Hippos, malaria and cap- ic team operated in the
sized canoes were among same region, surveying
the hazards for National water quality, plant and
Geographic researchers animal species and hu-
paddling along an Ango- man impact on the envi-
lan river that had been ronment after starting their
barely studied. On a sep- nearly two-month journey
arate survey in Angola, at the source of the Cu-
a conservationist drove bango river, which supplies
on remote tracks where much of the water in Bo-
wrecked tanks and other tswana’s Okavango Delta,
remnants of decades of a UNESCO World Heritage
civil war are still visible. site. The war in Angola, a
“The ghosts of war are still former Portuguese colo-
there in the landscape,” ny, “preserved this place
Seamus Maclennan, a in time” and “very few
member of the New York- people interact with the
based Panthera group, people along these rivers,”
wrote in an email. “Tanks team member Steve Boyes
and shrapnel from 30 years said live on Facebook on
ago are still strewn across Sunday after the expedi-
marambas (wide river val- This camera trap photo taken July 2016 and supplied by Panthera group, shows a leopard in An- tion ended.
leys) in some places. Gut- gola, which has taken steps to welcome international conservationists who are assessing the state Oil-producing Angola,
ted buildings pockmarked of national parks following the nearly three-decade civil war that ended in 2002. which recognizes the mon-
Associated Press
with bullet holes remain in ey-earning potential of
small villages.” They say the situation is relative scarcity or virtual day, some old UNITA flags tourism, marked U.N. World
The southwest African dire, but there’s potential non-existence of species, fly in a region that includes Environment Day on June 5
country was virtually inac- to rebuild. Demining groups including buffalo and wil- Jamba, where Savimbi was by burning trafficked ivory
cessible to international say the continuing removal debeest, that lions favor based, and Cuito Cua- tusks and carvings at Qui-
conservationists because of explosives left over from as prey. Poachers kill such navale, site of a Cold War- cama, or Kissama, park
of decades of conflict that the war will help to make animals for the bushmeat era battle involving troops in the northwest. The An-
ended in 2002, leaving at some wildlife areas safe for trade. from Cuba (siding with the golan military has assisted
least half a million people tourism. Panthera proposes training Angolan government) and with security for the critical-
dead, several million dis- Only an estimated 10 to 30 local rangers and building apartheid South Africa ly endangered giant sable
placed from their homes lions remain in Luengue- tourism in the parks, which (backing UNITA). antelope, which is found in
and infrastructure dev- Luiana and Mavinga na- form part of a loose, cross- “Jamba is in the heart of no other country.
astated. Now groups are tional parks, which take up border network of conser- the area where we plan There should be more
getting more access to a 84,400 square kilometers vation areas in Angola, Bo- to work,” said Paul Fun- emphasis on training and
nation with deep poverty (32,590 square miles) in tswana, Namibia, Zambia ston, senior director of Pan- good working conditions
as well as corruption and Cuando Cubango prov- and Zimbabwe. thera’s lion and cheetah for rangers who might
considerable suspicion ince in southeast Angola, The Angolan section was programs. “I also visited otherwise turn to wildlife
of outsiders, working with according to Panthera, a stronghold of the UNITA the site of one of Savim- trafficking, said Vladimir
Angolans to assess areas which aims to protect wild rebel group that became bi’s houses ... On the road Russo, head of Fundacao
where wildlife was deci- cats and their habitats. The an opposition party after we followed to locate the Kissama, a conservation
mated and still faces pres- group concluded that the leader Jonas Savimbi was house still stand two 105 group based in the capital,
sure from poachers. low number is due to the killed in the civil war. To- mm field artillery cannons Luanda.q