Holding the Line for Angola’s Elephants
We visit Elephant Crisis Fund partners across the continent to see how they – and their elephants – are faring, and to assess the impact of our support.
Recently, I travelled to Angola to an area north-east of the country’s capital city Luanda, where, since 2019, we’ve been supporting Kissama Foundation’s efforts to protect Africa’s southernmost forest elephant population in an area known as Dembos.
Here Angola’s elephants are hanging on – just. I witnessed the harsh truth of their struggle for survival here, but also discovered where timely support could tip the scales in their favour.
Across Angola, the natural environment is under severe threat, with poaching, logging, mining, and farming continuing unchecked, even inside national parks. Despite the low numbers of elephants, human-elephant conflict is a major, and growing, threat. Not one part of the Dembos elephant range – home to an estimated 50 to 150 forest elephants, possibly more – lies within a protected area.
Yet despite this grim situation, glimmers of hope remain.
In Maria Teresa, a military reserve north of the Kwanza River in Cuanza Norte Province, a small group of elephants still roams. Despite the risks – conflict with farmers, speeding traffic, and occasional military poaching – this area has become a fragile haven. Here, a local guardian, supported by Kissama Foundation, is tracking elephant movement and crop damage and encouraging his colleagues in the army to protect the elephants. His work is vital. We believe this area could be the cornerstone of a new strategy to help people and elephants live together.
Further north, in Uige and Bengo Provinces, more elephant guardians are doing their best to monitor elephant activity and to discourage people from killing elephants in retaliation for crop damage across an increasingly fragmented landscape. Levels of deforestation are out of control. From banana groves to cassava fields, crop-raiding is an escalating problem. These incidents are not just frustrating for farmers – they’re fuelling lethal retaliation. It’s a pattern we’ve seen across Africa, and one that demands urgent attention.
But there’s a way forward.
With your support, we can help Kissama Foundation establish pilot mitigation projects that help protect both farms and elephants, to educate local people and government officials about elephants, and to help create safe spaces for elephants. From low-spec fencing to field toolkits and community-based training, these practical steps can make a profound difference. Angola’s government provides no assistance to farmers affected by elephants, so even small acts of support can shift local sentiment and reduce the risk of killing.
With $30,000 in funding, Kissama Foundation could strengthen the guardian network – equipping and training more local monitors and providing the resources to help them promote co-existence between elephants and farmers.
Our partnership with Kissama also continues to focus on strengthening their understanding of this little-known elephant population and pushing for the creation of a formally recognised protected area within the elephants’ range.
It’s clear that the road ahead won’t be easy. Environmental protection is not a priority for Angola’s government and the country has still not recovered from the long years of civil war. But we know change is possible. The Angolan giant sable antelope – once feared extinct – is experiencing a fragile recovery thanks to the determination of Pedro vaz Pinto – Kissama Foundation’s Scientific Coordinator.
We can bring that same resolve to Angola’s forest elephants.
Ahead of Elephant Appreciation Day on September 22, your gift can help the elephants of Angola – before it’s too late. Please donate today.