ANGOLA: World Environmental Day 2016 For Angola

Angola, which is seeking to conserve its biodiversity-rich wildlife and rebuild its elephant population, will this year host the 2016 World Environment Day (WED).

WED is the largest single day event aimed at positive action on the environment worldwide. It takes place on 5 June each year. This year’s theme is fighting the illegal wildlife trade, an issue of large importance in Angola, where poaching is threatening efforts to rebuild an elephant population decimated by decades-long civil war.

According to Angolan Environment Minister Maria de Fatima Jardim Angola is delighted to host WED because the illegal wildlife trade and particularly the trade in ivory and rhino horn is a major problem across the African continent. “By hosting this day of celebration and awareness-raising, we aim to send a clear message that such practices will soon be eradicated.”

The United Nations Environmental Programme says very little is known about the size of Angola’s remaining elephant population, which historically lived in the southeast of the country, also crossing the borders to neighbouring countries.

The Great Elephant Census, the first aerial survey of known elephant ranges in Angola, started last year in attempt to build a clearer picture of the population in Africa, and with regards to Angola, in the Kaza Area. The information collected will be used in the Angolan government’s elephant inventory programme and for the conservation of wild habitats in the Okavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area and the Cuando-Cubango province.

Angola is also currently revising its Penal Code to ensure tougher punishments for poachers in its efforts to reverse the damage to its wildlife populations.

The Great Elephant Census is designed to provide accurate and up-to-date data about the number and distribution of African elephants by using standardised aerial surveys of tens of hundreds of thousands of square miles. Conceptualised by Elephants Without Borders, it is supported by African Parks, the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and several influential individuals.