African Wildlife and Environment Issue 66

CONSERVATION

CONSERVATION

prescient observation, in a letter of 29 October 1971: “I appreciate the tremendous task that lies before you ... you will probably have to spend the rest of your life trying to get things straight ...”

destruction of Angola’s Eden has been the singular and overwhelming result of greed and disinterest on the part of the ruling kleptocracy. In an episode of state capture unparalleled in Africa, the 38-year rule by José Eduardo dos Santos and the politico-military elite has stripped the country of its natural resources and environmental assets, and robbed the nation of its soul. While Luanda is the most expensive city in the world, with the highest consumption of Moët e Chandon in Africa, Angola, according to investigative reporting by New York Times , is ‘the deadliest country in the world to be a child’. Hospitals have little equipment or medicine, clinics have no doctors or even syringes. The infant mortality rate in Angola is ranked 177th in the world, just less than that of Somalia. Despite the vast wealth of the oil and diamond industries and the extravagant life of the president and his sycophantic ministers, national parks have no vehicles, fuel, radios or proper accommodation, and support for the few, poorly-trained rangers and game guards. While the Minister of Environment travels across the globe to announce the proclamation of more and larger ‘paper parks’ at successive international conservation meetings, the pace of bush meat sales at roadside markets, charcoal production across the country, and logging trucks rolling down Angola’s highways continues unabated. The latest Presidential Decree, of 7 June 2017, announced the granting of logging concessions in 15 provinces, permits for 250 000 cubic metres of hardwoods being granted, legitimizing an existing massive illegal destruction of the country’s last forests. Luanda was identified in 2015 as having the biggest illegal ivory market in Africa, by veteran ivory trade researcher Esmond Bradley Martin. In a belated response, the Minister did the usual thing done by politicians, she lit a ceremonial funeral pyre of confiscated tusks for a media event in Quiçama which is the very park where the last of its naturally occurring elephants were poached to extinction during her fruitless 20-year tenure as minister. Across all parks, the game populations continue downward, while park wardens either do not knowwhat numbers of game are left, or are too intimidated by the Minister to report on the dire state of the populations. Independent surveys continue to be the only source of reliable information on wildlife status across the country. Panthera , a USA-based NGO that has been undertaking detailed surveys of predators in the Cuando-Cubango, report a virtual extinction of lion and cheetah (and their prey) in the 4 481 000 ha Luengue-Luiana National Park, and where elephant populations, monitored by satellite tracking for the past decade by the NGO Elephants Without Borders , show a rapid decline despite the Minister’s claims to the contrary. Whether it is greed, ignorance or arrogance that guides conservation policy and action in Angola, one thing is certain: while an autocratic kleptocracy is so deeply embedded in all arms of government, environmental conservation has no chance of success. As a young ecologist newly arrived in Angola in 1971, letters received from Ian Player were a source of encouragement. But little did I then recognize his

Brian J Huntley brianjhuntley@gmail.com

BOOK REVIEW

Huntley, Brian J. (2017) . Wildlife at War in Angola. The Rise and Fall of an African Eden. P rotea Book House, Pretoria (www.proteaboekhuis. com). Soft cover, 17 x 21 cm, colour and monochrome photos, 432 pp.

Angola was one of Africa’s last great wildernesses. Gorillas and chimpanzees shared the pristine rainforests of Cabinda, giant sable antelope roamed the miombo woodlands of Luando, and the enigmatic Welwitschia mirabilis crowded the plains of the Namib Desert. But war, intrigues, and arrogance have resulted in the loss and near extinction of most of Angola’s formerly abundant wildlife and the decay and erosion of a once endless Eden. In this brand-new book, Brian Huntley lifts the lid on Angola’s tragic destruction of its wildlife and protected areas, writing that “The national parks in Angola are in a chaotic and critical state – a situation that must be recognised for what it is, and widely publicised both within the country and globally”. From 1971 to 1975 he was ecologist for Angola’s five major national parks, surveying the entire country and developing a conservation strategy for government. Integrating the historical, political, economic and environmental threats that account for Angola’s post colonial tragedy, Huntley describes in detail the wildlife, wild places and wild personalities that have occupied the country’s conservation landscape through four decades of war and a decade and a half of peace. He has returned to Angola many times since 1975, and writes with great authority and insight about this enigmatic place. The wealth of Angola’s ruling class is astonishing, and the international press recently ran a story about how ‘Angolans are Colonising Portugal’. While Huntley is optimistic that the situation can be turned around, and he gives a number of recommendations as to what should be done, he also comments: “But evidence-based criticism is not popular in Angola. I have been warned not to return to Angola in the wake of this book’s publication.” Book review by Dr John Ledger

Plate 1: A view over upper area of Plot 1 Photo taken January 2010

Indigenous forest rehabilitation in the KARKLOOF DISTRICT

Following my retirement as WESSA Conservation Director during 2002, I decided to pursue a Project on Forest Rehabilitation at Mbona Private Nature Reserve in the Karkloof District of KwaZulu-Natal. I was able to secure sponsorship from the Nicholson Trust to enable me to undertake this Project. The site I chose for this conservation / research project was a recently clear felled plantation of Pine trees Pinus sp . These trees were over 30 years old and covered an area of approximately 15 ha.

Keith H. Cooper

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