Angola Battles Poachers in Nat'l Parks

Q U I C A M A   N A T I O N A L   P A R K, Angola, Dec. 4 -- Far from the violence of Angola’s brutal civil war, an eagle soars over the silent Kwanza River Valley, forming a picture-postcard silhouette against skies tinged pink by the African sunset.

There’s little obvious evidence of Angola’s devastating two-decade conflict here, but even so, a kind of battle is being waged.

While government troops and the UNITA rebels clash elsewhere, Angola’s top military brass are battling to reintroduce elephants, antelope and other species that once roamed the country’s 10 national parks.

Backed by a privately funded, $10 million project, the generals are working with South African wildlife experts to revive Angola’s wildlife, beginning with the Quicama (Kiss-AH-ma) Park.

“It’s a conservationist’s dream to set up a park from the beginning,” James Coetzee, the park’s South African warden, said as he sat cross-legged in the mild evening air near his whitewashed lodge.

Behind him stretched the lush Kwanza Valley, the broad river meandering across plains dotted with towering candelabra cacti and ancient baobab trees.

Quicama spans nearly 2.5 million acres about 47 miles south of Luanda, the country’s capital.

Animals Prey to Modern Warfare

Angola’s protracted war has had a catastrophic effect on the country’s wildlife.

Forty years ago, thousands of animals roamed the fertile bushland of Quicama. But over the years, the animals fell prey to land mines, ivory-stalking poachers and hungry locals. Many animals were slaughtered by the country’s military which used low-flying helicopters to take pot shots at big game.

The civil war between the army and UNITA rebels began after a 14-year struggle for independence from Portugal, which was granted in 1975. Still raging, the war has cost the lives of more than a million people and driven more than 2.5 million civilians from their homes. UNITA is a Portuguese-language acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

“Where there is a war, there is no law. Everyone does whatever they want, on the civilian side, as well as military,” said Kalumbo, a “soba” or tribal chief who lives close to the park.

“The people kill a buffalo, it makes a meal. But poachers, they kill 10, 15 or 20 at a time,” he said.

A Turning Point Against Poachers

Today, the park — and much of this Southwest African country — is virtually devoid of wildlife. A 1997 survey by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimated fewer than 300 elephants remained in all of Angola.

Only last month, 30 elephants were found dead, their tusks brutally ripped out, at the Bicuar National Park in the southern province of Huila. Angola’s Forest Development Institute said heavily armed Angolan and foreign poachers had killed them. Poachers use rifles, land mines or poisoned water sources to get their game.

But this project could prove to be a turning point for the country’s wildlife.

The idea was hatched by Luis Faceira and his brother Antonio, two powerful generals who head the government army and the elite “commandos” force.

To oversee the project, they set up a nonprofit organization, called the Kissama Foundation, using the park’s English-language name, and headed by Angola’s armed forces chief Gen. Joao de Matos.

Two elephant family groups, 10 kudu and eight eland, have already been flown over from South African game reserves.

Recently, 10 of the gray elephants could be seen in the bush, blowing trunkfuls of red sand onto their backs to keep cool and chase away bugs before ambling off for more food.

Another 300 elephants from Botswana are expected to join them over the next year.

Kept Under Armed Guarded

The park lies in an area traditionally held by the army and is heavily protected.

Newly arriving animals are confined to a 50-acre area ringed by an 8,500-volt electric fence patrolled by 60 former soldiers armed with AK-47 rifles.

The foundation is also seeking to boost tourism in a country of astounding natural beauty, but mostly avoided by tourists because of the fighting.

“We hope this will be a way to assist in the political calming of the country, a vehicle to focus on something other than the war,” Coetzee, the park warden, said.

“Judging from the enthusiasm of the people,” he added, “that can happen.”