Conservation in Angola

[3] During the early 1970s, the colonial government greatly expanded its conservation efforts, and the outlook for Angola's ecological future looked promising.

[4] Infrastructural and agricultural collapse caused by the war, along with the associated mass migrations within the country, dramatically reduced the environment's capacity to sustain the nation's population.

[6] When the violence died down, hundreds of thousands of people returned to their native homes and began farming and ranching on land that the forest had begun to reclaim.

[8] New research conducted in 2015 revealed a 21% decline in population over the previous ten years, likely due to increased poaching and human habitat encroachment.

They are currently working with the United Nations Environment Programme to rehabilitate coastal and wetland habitats as well as establish a sustainable chemical and waste management infrastructure.

[13] However, strong concerns about governmental corruption persist, with officials in the past having sold off mining rights to protected lands and embezzled money through sham construction projects.