Wildlife at War in Angola: The Rise and Fall of an African Eden

But the vast open spaces, peaceful stillness and tropical luxuriance that he found during the four years they spent exploring and developing the country’s wildlife reserves was not to last. This book describes in fascinating detail the wildlife, wild places and wild personalities that occupied Angola’s conservation landscape through four decades of war and a decade of peace. The powder keg of anger against centuries of colonial exploitation of slavery, of forced labor and of an abusive system of penal settlement could not be contained. It was not always so. The author was appointed ecologist to Angola’s National Parks in 1971. Intrigues, assassinations, corruption, greed and incompetence during the colonial era, through the horrific war and most especially throughout the crony-capitalist kleptocracy of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos have resulted in the extinction of most of its formerly abundant wildlife populations and the decay and erosion of a once endless Eden. Bloody nationalist uprisings led to the abandonment

Following retirement in 2009 as CEO of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, he is currently engaged as an independent consultant on conservation research and implementation projects in many African countries and for various United Nations agencies. Huntley is an internationally respected conservationist with over 50 years of field

Huntley is an internationally respected conservationist with over 50 years of field research and management experience in many African countries and sub-Antarctic islands. He has initiated and led to successful conclusion several major interdisciplinary cooperative research and institutional development projects from the Cape to the Congo. . About the Author Brian J. Following retirement in 2009 as CEO of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, he is currently engaged as an independent consultant on conservation research and implementation projects in many African countries and for various United Nations agencies