Nowhere was that mystery more pronounced than in Angola. In 1860, naturalist Philip Lutley Sclater documented a single golden cat skin obtained from an ivory caravan traveling through the country’s interior—evidence that the species existed there, but nothing more. Over the next 162 years only a few more skins would appear. More recently, a molecular study would help researchers identify a single sample of golden cat meat being sold in a market. But despite this proof that at least a few animals were present, no one was able to capture a photograph of a living golden cat in Angola.

That changed thanks to the work of Eduardo Lutondo and his team, working in partnership with the African Golden Cat Conservation Alliance (AGCCA) and Fundação Kissama. Lutondo, along with his teammates Timoteo Julio and Graça Catuti, spent three years searching for direct evidence of a living cat. They began in Maiombe National Park, prompted by a report from a nearby province. But months of monitoring with camera traps turned out to be fruitless.

The team’s breakthrough came from local knowledge. In 2024, community members shared information about a suspected African golden cat sighting in the Uíge region, in northwest Angola. Acting on this intelligence, the team deployed twelve trail cameras at Serra do Vampa—one of the mountains in the Serra do Pingano range which was recently designated as a protected area. After 144 days Eduardo retrieved the footage and found what his team had spent years searching for: the first video ever recorded of a living African golden cat in Angola.

The discovery is more than a historic first. It confirms that a population of the species still survives in the region, even as hunting continues to pose a direct threat to its future there. With this evidence in hand, Eduardo and his colleagues are now working to expand their community-led conservation efforts, aiming to reduce hunting pressure and build local support for protecting the species.

The project was supported by the SWCCF, and builds on AGCCA’s broader work uniting conservationists across the African golden cat’s range. Jim Sanderson, founder and director of the SWCCF, often notes that protecting a species this elusive takes passion, patience, and persistence. And that is exactly what yielded this incredible finding.

Small wild cats receive less than 1% of the conservation funding given to their larger cousins. If you would like to support the effort to save incredible species like the African golden cat, please consider donating below.

The post Angola’s First Living African Golden Cat, Caught on Camera appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

Support Across Landscapes 

WCN’s Wildlife Funds work across landscapes and international borders, with targeted grants to help save key species. This is a model that is ideally suited to the challenges faced by painted dogs—a species scattered across vast stretches of the African continent.

During his Closer Look presentation, Nick announced new grants all across these landscapes. In Zimbabwe’s Savé Valley, that includes support to respond to an outbreak of canine distemper—a disease which can spread from domestic dogs and devastate entire packs of painted dogs—with an emergency vaccination campaign. And in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, the Fund will expand painted dog conservation efforts across 5,000 square kilometers of wilderness.

Moving west to Namibia, the Painted Dog Fund will also provide support to the Kwando Carnivore Project to establish the country’s first-ever large-scale painted dog conservation program—a major breakthrough in a region bordering Africa’s southern population stronghold. Meanwhile, up in Kenya, the Fund will provide a grant to launch the Suyan Conservation Alliance, which will help protect painted dogs across the roughly half a million square miles of northern Kenya. It will also be the first ever African-led painted dog conservation project.

Nick’s entire presentation is well worth listening to—it includes more information about the Fund, its approach to saving painted dogs, and a bounty of Nick’s stunning photography. You can watch it here.

Checking in with a beloved pack

Some of you may remember that this summer we told you about the struggles of the beloved Umkhonto pack of painted dogs in Zimbabwe. Painted Dog Conservation, a WCN Partner, remains hard at work protecting this pack in the wake of a devastating vehicle collision that killed two of their members. And so we were happy to get an update from Nick about this incredible extended family of painted dogs.

The good news is that the Umkhonto pack has remained safe since we last checked in on them. But the less-good news is the pack has denned right next to a busy highway—about as risky a location as possible. Painted Dog Conservation has mobilized a large team to protect them, and have helped establish speed bumps and roadblocks on the highway. They are determined not to lose a single animal this season. And the Painted Dog Fund has joined the effort with an emergency grant to Painted Dog Conservation, to help protect the Umkhonto pack.

This is a powerful example of how WCN is so much more than the sum of its parts, and how our Wildlife Funds and Conservation Partners can work together to help save wildlife. We know that we’ll be hoping for the best for the Umkhonto pack, and all of the dedicated conservationists working to protect them.  

The post A Big Day for Painted Dogs—New Projects, and More Protections for a Beloved Pack appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

In nearby Boca Tapada—birthplace of the Women Rangers program—floodwaters have cut off the only road into the community. Residents are stranded, and the Women Rangers can no longer reach the native tree nursery they’ve spent years building, one that grows the mountain almond and other tree species that great green macaws depend on to survive.

The MRN’s team is staying in close contact with both communities as conditions continue to shift. Joser Reyes, the organization’s Reserve Guardian and a trained volunteer firefighter, has joined local rescue efforts in Pangola. There he participated in the rescue of pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, elderly people, as well as even dogs and cats.

These are the communities that make macaw conservation possible—the women who raise seedlings, monitor nests, and lead reforestation. The children who are learning to protect the forests they’ll inherit. They are also, as is so often the case, among those with the fewest resources to weather a crisis like this one. In Pangola, Joser spoke with resident Roger Arrieta, who had this to say:

“The most serious impact is here, for the local residents in the surrounding area. You can see the damages caused by the river. When the river rises like this it causes major damage, sweeping everything away, damaging everything, carrying everything away. And so, the people here are always the ones who suffer. They lose all the things they have, all their animals, everything they own… So that’s the problem we have here. If you could give us a little help, you could even come and see for yourselves. This is real.”

The Macaw Recovery Network has issued an urgent appeal for support to the communities of Pangola and Boca Tapada. If you are able, please consider donating to help them stand with the communities who stand for the macaws.

The post Standing with Communities on the Front Lines of Macaw Conservation appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

Iroro’s Story: Recognition meets Resources

Back in 2016, Iroro Tanshi spent four days hiking into Nigeria’s Afi Mountains Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary had protection on paper, and the wild gorilla and chimpanzee populations had their advocates. But the bats did not. Hunting was rife and largely unchecked, and the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat was losing its last known roost to wildfires and disturbance.

Iroro built a response from the ground up. What started as a campaign to protect one roost became the Tropical Fire Alliance, a model now aiming to sequester 15 to 20 million metric tons of carbon a year. In 2024 her organization, SMACON, became a WCN Conservation Partner. And earlier this year, Iroro won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, a profound recognition for her important work. 

Iroro’s story is also a case study in a problem WCN works on every day—how to support local, frontline conservationists and ensure that they have the resources to scale.

What It Takes to Scale Frontline Conservation

The Goldman Prize offers more than just international recognition—it also comes with funding in the form of $200,000 for each winner. While this prize money isn’t enough to sustain a forest guardian force, or the staff needed to operate early-warning wildfire systems, it can be a very meaningful addition to a sophisticated international fundraising effort. And indeed the prize itself can be a tremendous boon to those efforts, serving as a signal to future donors that an organization is worth supporting. 

Recognition opens doors that would otherwise remain closed. This is especially true for the Indigenous and local communities that are on the front lines of wildlife conservation, but often have the least access to the philanthropic sector. Globally, Indigenous and local communities receive less than 1% of climate funding. To change this, community-based conservation organizations require both recognition to elevate their work and resources to sustain it. 

Join us in New York

WCN’s panel on September 24 will dig into this very issue, with some of the experts best positioned to speak about it. If you will be in New York this September, we would love to see you there. And if you would like to learn more about WCN and our participation in New York Climate Week, please reach out to us at info@wildnet.org.

The post WCN Comes to New York Climate Week appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

Remmy is a data and operations coordinator with Wildlife Crime Prevention (WCP). He was born and raised in Mumbwa, a small town at the eastern end of Kafue National Park, the oldest and largest in Zambia. A man with a head for systems, Remmy had long believed that uniting data-driven strategies with community engagement was essential to better tackling the problem of wildlife crime. And so in 2024, Remmy joined WCN’s Rising Wildlife Leaders (RWL) Careers program to grow his community outreach skills and expand his technological proficiency.

It was Remmy’s course of study with RWL that led him to design this workshop. The goal was twofold: first, Remmy aimed to gather data through focus group-style discussions that would help improve his understanding of how local influencers interact with pangolins—an animal with the grim distinction of being the world’s most trafficked mammal, poached to the brink of extinction. Second, and more ambitiously, he hoped to enlist these leaders as pangolin conservation ambassadors.

It was not long after the workshop began that more surprises came. Remmy found participants to be incredibly curious about pangolins and eager to learn. These healers and leaders were anything but passive recipients of information—they were actively engaged with the discussion, asking thoughtful questions about who really benefited from the illegal wildlife trade and how pangolin conservation efforts could also support human wellbeing. And by the end of the workshop, the participants went from having little knowledge of pangolins to becoming advocates for pangolin conservation. 

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Wildlife Crime Prevention is a grantee of the Pangolin Crisis Fund. By investing in the career development of conservationists like Remmy, WCN also amplifies the impact of our conservation programs.

Together, they developed Bemba-language awareness materials, such as posters and booklets, to reduce the demand for pangolin products at the community level. By centering the voices of these traditional healers, Remmy’s co-design approach ensured not only that the materials would be culturally relevant, but that these influential community leaders would feel a sense of ownership over them. Both the locally-adapted materials and the community leaders advocating for them will play an important role in protecting pangolins in Zambia. And Remmy, through his participation in RWL and his role at WCP, will continue to grow as a leader in the field.

The post Turning Traditional Healers into Pangolin Ambassadors appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

Many of the places where WCN works can seem remote to us—from the reefs of Raja Ampat to the deserts of Namibia. But for wildlife conservation to take root and thrive, we must identify and support the conservationists who come from, live in, and work to protect these places. Only local leaders have the relationships, knowledge, and deep commitment necessary to protect wildlife over the long term. The kind of commitment that comes from defending your own home. It is on this simple but powerful belief that the WCN Rising Wildlife Leaders (RWL) programs were founded.

Rising Wildlife Leaders first launched in 2006, with a Scholarship Program that has thus far supported 264 conservationists across over 50 different countries. Two decades later, that vision expanded into multiple programs, which support both established and emerging conservationists working to protect wildlife in their home countries and communities. RWL alumni have gone on to lead nationally recognized conservation organizations, win international awards, and mentor the next generation of local leaders. Many of them also work with organizations that are WCN Partners or grantees—like David Kuvogawa of Painted Dog Conservation—enhancing the impact of our conservation efforts. We are so proud of what these leaders have accomplished over the last 20 years, and look forward to supporting many more to come.

Welcoming the Pangolin Cohort

This year, the Rising Wildlife Leaders Careers program welcomes a cohort of emerging conservation leaders united around a single group of species—the pangolin. Native to Africa and Asia, pangolins are the most illegally trafficked mammals in the world. And while not all pangolin species face the same level of danger, they are all threatened with extinction. The effort to protect them is both far-reaching and complex—spanning ecosystems, cultures, international borders, and global trade routes. In recognition of that complexity, and in partnership with Save Pangolins and WCN’s Pangolin Crisis Fund, we have assembled a cohort representing six countries across Africa and Asia.

As members of the Career program, these six conservationists will receive personalized professional development support. They will improve both their skills and professional networks through dedicated mentorship and access to grants to attend courses and conferences. They will also learn from and create community with each other—six conservationists focusing on six different species of pangolin, all aiding in the global push to save these unique and deeply vulnerable animals from extinction. You can read a longer feature about this cohort of incredible conservationists here.

Celebrating a Graduation in the Rainforest

This summer also marks the graduation of the first 24 participants in WCN’s Rising Wildlife Leaders Amazonia program. Made up of conservationists from vastly different backgrounds, but united by a shared devotion to protecting the Amazon rainforest and its extraordinary wildlife, this became more than a simple training program. Over two years, these participants from across the Amazon basin have built a lasting network of peers and allies—one that will strengthen their work, foster regional cooperation, and amplify conservation impact for years to come. Congratulations, conservationists!

The post Twenty Years of Elevating Local Leadership appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

When we think of human-wildlife conflict, our minds go first to retaliatory killings. But something else presents a serious threat to the survival of this species—vehicle collisions. The fact that painted dogs are one of the few species to care for their sick and injured makes them especially vulnerable to this danger. When a painted dog is killed on a highway, the others will gather around, putting the entire pack at risk of a second collision.

The challenge of managing human-wildlife conflict is one that David Kuvawoga, who has worked at PDC since 2015, knows intimately. David comes from a family of conservationists, and he was still a boy when he first dressed himself in his father’s ranger uniform to play-act at saving wildlife. Last year, with support from WCN’s Rising Wildlife Leaders Scholarship Program, David completed a Masters of Environmental Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His studies explored drivers of human-wildlife conflict around Hwange National Park, including the mosaic of dangers that the Umkhonto pack must navigate.

In the wake of the tragedy on the highway that killed two painted dogs, PDC partnered with regulatory authorities, police and the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe to establish educational roadblocks within wildlife areas. Rather than simply put up warning signs, police engaged motorists at these roadblocks to explain the importance of reducing speed and remaining alert—not just for the safety of wildlife, but for that of local communities as well. At the same time, PDC also strengthened their monitoring efforts, particularly when a pack moves near the highway, to reduce the danger of future collisions.

With the deep expertise in human-wildlife conflict that he developed at PDC and strengthened through WCN’s Rising Wildlife Leaders program, David is better equipped than ever to lead this work. For the Umkhonto pack and the hundreds of painted dogs still navigating these roads, that vigilance may make all the difference.

The post Rising to the Challenge of Human-Wildlife Conflict appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

El Gato No Tiene la Culpa—The Cat is Blameless

The Zapana Quispe family is one of many across the Andes mountains that the Andean Cat Alliance (Alianza Gato Andino, AGA) works with directly. In October of 2025, the AGA visited the mountain community of San Juan de Tarucani to see if they couldn’t help reduce the number of livestock being lost to predators.

Now if you know anything about the Andean cat, this may surprise you. A healthy adult Andean cat weighs in at between 9 and 12 pounds—just a hair larger than an average American house cat. Meanwhile, an adult domestic alpaca can get as heavy as 200 pounds. It is therefore very safe to say that the Andean cat, both secretive and slight, presents no threat to the livelihoods of high altitude families like the Zapana Quispe.

So why, then, would an organization dedicated to the protection of the Andean cat invest time and resources into reducing predation from much larger culpeos, and pumas? The answer is both illustrative of how complex human-wildlife conflict can be, and a reminder that conservation cannot be successful without meaningful engagement with local communities. What the AGA has learned over years of engaging with families like the Zapana Quispe is that retaliation doesn’t discriminate. When a family struggling to make ends meet wakes up to find that some of their animals have been lost to predators, they are likely to lash out against any predator they can find. In some parts of the Andes mountains, the retaliatory hunting of Andean cats is so intense that more than half of recorded sightings come from animals that have been hunted.

So rather than simply trying to educate the community of San Juan de Tarucani about the difference between high altitude predators, the AGA decided to tackle the problem head on. To protect the Andean cat they set out to reduce livestock predation, regardless of who the predator might be.

From the Australian Rangelands to the High Andes

When the AGA visited the Peruvian highlands in 2025, they brought two things with them. The first was a research tool—a chart that allowed farmers to track and record every instance of livestock predation. It was printed on the back of a branded AGA calendar, which in addition to being practical is also just good branding. And the second thing that they brought, small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, was a foxlight. 

Foxlights are solar-powered lights that emit irregular, unpredictable flashes throughout the night. This creates the illusion of human activity—specifically of a person walking with a flashlight in-hand—and discourages predators from approaching livestock. Foxlights are so-named because they were originally developed by sheep farmers in Australia to protect their lambs and poultry from foxes. They are a simple, nonlethal tool for mitigating human-wildlife conflict. The fact that they require little maintenance and operate automatically from dusk until dawn makes them a particularly appealing solution in remote communities like San Juan de Tarucani, where spare parts are difficult to come by and electricity can be expensive.

While not a pilot, the AGA’s use of foxlights outside of Australia is still relatively cutting-edge. The technology was developed in 2008, and first began to be used in other contexts just a few years ago. And at least in this Peruvian community, it was a success.

“Thanks for the calendar. But we didn’t need it.”

When the team from the AGA returned to that high altitude community this year, they found that the calendars they had designed to document instances of livestock predation didn’t see any use at all. Because, thanks to the foxlight, nighttime predation had all but stopped. 

This is a striking result, and one that offers real hope. But it’s also important to remain grounded—foxlights are not a cure-all solution to the problem of livestock predation. They work very well at night, especially in static places such as corrals or areas where livestock sleep. But that is also their main limitation, as attacks can and do happen in the day, when livestock wander far afield to graze. That is why the AGA also works with communities on a range of other solutions, including livestock guardian dogs, scarecrows, scents that ward off predators, and improved fencing.

Still, the peace of mind that this little device has brought to this community is very real. And while the Andean cats will never know it, they are slightly safer now because of these lights, spinning in the dark.

The post A Light in the Dark—One Simple Device that is Helping Save the Andean Cat appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

Meeting the challenges that pangolins face requires more than protecting individual animals or landscapes—it requires investing in the people and organizations working every day to safeguard their future. That is why WCN, in partnership with Save Pangolins, is proud to welcome a new pangolin-focused cohort to WCN’s Rising Wildlife Leaders (RWL) Career Program.

The RWL Career Program Turns Towards Pangolins

Now in its fifth year, the RWL Career Program identifies locally-based conservationists at a turning point in their professional lives, and helps them develop the skills and networks they need to enhance their impact. Since its launch in 2022, the program has supported 30 conservationists across 18 countries, strengthening local expertise and helping ensure that conservation leadership remains rooted in the communities and landscapes where it is needed most.

Last year, the Career Program set its sights on a new challenge—assembling a class of emerging conservationists all focused on protecting a single group of species, across vast distances and cultural contexts. That was our rhino cohort, who just gathered this summer in South Africa to exchange valuable lessons learned. It was also the first time that WCN partnered with another conservation organization, the International Rhino Foundation, on our Careers Program. Together with Save Pangolins, we are building on that approach with our pangolin cohort.

Six Leaders. Six Countries. One Mission.

Our newest cohort brings together six conservationists from Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Malawi, Kenya, India, and Nepal. Collectively, they work across a range of six pangolin species, including giant, Temmick’s, white-bellied, black-bellied, Chinese, and Indian pangolins. The cohort’s expertise spans scientific research, wildlife crime prevention, veterinary medicine, community engagement, rescue and rehabilitation, conservation genetics, and protected area management.

That was, we realize, a lot of lists for a single paragraph. This is one of the things that makes pangolin conservation rather difficult to talk about—the diversity of species, landscapes, threats, and conservation approaches make the subject resistant to summary. But when WCN and Save Pangolins assembled this cohort, they did so with this diversity in mind. Not simply checking boxes to ensure a broad geographic distribution, but also bringing together emerging leaders working on all different aspects of pangolin conservation. 

By bringing together conservationists from such different national and professional backgrounds, the Career Program creates opportunities for them to learn from one another’s experiences, share practical solutions, and build relationships that can strengthen pangolin conservation far beyond the duration of the program itself. A rescue and rehabilitation challenge faced in Kenya may offer lessons for practitioners in Malawi. Community engagement strategies developed in Central Africa may inspire new approaches in South Asia. Together, participants gain access not only to training and mentorship, but also to a growing network of peers united by a common mission.

To learn more about the cohort members, you can read their full bios here.

More than Just Six Individual Leaders. 

Here we come to a common refrain when talking about pangolin conservation: “but also, it’s more complicated than that.” Because the story of the pangolin cohort is not only a story about six individuals—inspiring as they may be. It is also about the organizations that they work for, and the impact potential they have. Organizations that are doing groundbreaking work to save the world’s pangolins.

So when we set out to assemble this cohort of conservationists, WCN and Save Pangolins did so with an eye both to the individuals, and the ways they can use this experience to support their colleagues and the organizations where they work. Our goal was to benefit their careers, and to improve outcomes for pangolins across that network. And while our participants’ jobs and titles may change throughout the course of the Career Program, the skills and connections that they develop will make them even more effective contributors in the fight to save pangolins.

A Deeper Look at the Network

Consider Monesh Singh Tomar, for instance—our participant from India, whom we profiled on this blog late last year. Monesh has a background in illegal wildlife trafficking and works for the Wildlife Trust of India. That work brings him to the gateway of the mountainous Golden Triangle, a notorious hotspot for illegal trade. There the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand converge, and trafficking networks move not only wildlife but also narcotics, weapons, and illicit timber. Numerous criminal networks share these smuggling routes, which makes wildlife trafficking part of a larger web of organized crime in East and Southeast Asia. The Wildlife Trust of India is doing groundbreaking work in this region, engaging local communities in pangolin conservation while also working to combat smuggling networks. And so by helping fund the continued professional development of Monesh, the Officer-in-Charge of their Wildlife Crime Control Division and member of IUCN’s Pangolin Specialist Group, we are investing both in the career of an individual conservationist and in a conservation program that is profoundly important to pangolins.

The same can be said of all our participants—a generation of leaders rising not in isolation, but within networks and organizations that will be key to the survival of all pangolins. Greenhood Nepal, where our participant Siddhanta Pandey works as a Program Officer, has pioneered camera-trap monitoring for pangolins in Nepali community forests for the first time ever. Thousands of miles away, participant Audrey Padoundji is doing similarly innovative monitoring work for The Forest Collective, collaborating directly with forest-dwelling communities in the Central African Republic on a camera-trapping program that is the first of its kind in the greater Congo landscape. And over in Cameroon, Alain Delon Mouafo Takoune conducts research and community outreach while also serving on the IUCN’s Pangolin Specialist Group—an important contact point with an international community of scientists and conservationists.

Finally, there is pangolin rehabilitation—a conservation tool which requires extensive specialist knowledge and is essential in the broader fight to restore wild pangolin populations. Chimwemwe Kalulu in Malawi and Mukami Vanessa Ruoro in Kenya both bring this skill set to our cohort. Chimwemwe is a research technician at the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, which plays a vital role in protecting Malawi’s wildlife through rescue and rehabilitation of animals that have been victims of wildlife crime. And Mukami is a veterinarian with the Kenya Wildlife Service, adding government service to our cohort’s collective experience set. She also works alongside the Pangolin Project, which is working to fill critical scientific knowledge gaps about the elusive giant ground pangolin—information that is essential for evidence-based conservation.

Taken together, these organizations all stand at different posts on the front lines of pangolin conservation. And by investing in these six leaders, we will not just level-up their individual careers, we will strengthen the entire pangolin conservation landscape. 

The post Bringing Together Six Leaders in the Field of Pangolin Conservation appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.

The Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF), a joint initiative between Save the Elephants and the Wildlife Conservation Network, has approved the largest single grant in its 13-year history – US$1.2 million over three years – to help save Angola’s forest elephants, the southernmost population of forest elephants left in Africa.

It is estimated that no more than 200 of these elephants remain – hidden in the biodiverse forested escarpments east and northeast of Luanda, the capital city. They live entirely outside protected areas, leaving them dangerously exposed to deforestation, poaching, road accidents and rising conflict with farmers. Supported by the ECF since 2019, Project Nzau has made significant progress in improving understanding of these elephants and raising awareness of their plight. However, effectiveness has been limited by the team’s small size and the huge scale of work needed.

This significant new commitment builds directly on the generosity of ECF supporters. Last year they responded to an urgent appeal, raising more than $390,000. A small part of this was used for ECF partner, Mozambique Wildlife Alliance, to visit Project Nzau in early 2026 and share ideas from their established HEC program, to help identify coexistence priorities. That groundwork has paved the way for an ambitious next phase, on which the remaining appeal funds will be used.

Project Nzau is led by the Kissama Foundation, a highly capable and motivated local NGO, supported by an internationally respected academic partner, BIOPOLIS. The new USD1.2M three-year grant will allow implementation of a potentially transformative series of activities. This ambitious project is led by Pedro Vaz Pinto – the Angolan conservationist – and project coordinator, Ninda Baptista, an Angolan biologist. Together with an expanded team, they plan to scale work from three provinces to all eight Angolan provinces where forest elephants may still survive. This will include working with different provincial governments and in close collaboration with the National Institute for Biodiversity and Conservation Areas (INBAC).

Funds will support a new human–elephant coexistence field centre, implementation of a coexistence programme to help communities to deter elephants from raiding crops, expansion of the elephant guardian initiative, GPS collaring of elephants to map movement and conflict hotspots, genetic analysis to produce the first robust population baseline, and national awareness campaigns to shift attitudes toward elephants. Many people living alongside them simply don’t yet know that killing elephants is illegal – a gap that targeted outreach can change.

“The Kissama team is exceptional,” says ECF Director Chris Thouless, who visited the project in 2025. “This is a high-risk, high-reward project. If it succeeds, it will be a turning point for Angola’s forest elephants – bringing them back from the brink.”

“We would like to sincerely thank ECF supporters for believing in our work,” says Ninda Baptista of Kissama Foundation. “Their continued support is essential for the protection of forest elephants.”

Saving these little-known elephants is a bold undertaking in a difficult landscape – but with the right partners on the ground and the support of donors, they finally have a real fighting chance.

Interested in supporting this project?

Donate to the ECF

To find out more about the project and the elephants of Angola, read Chris Thouless’ report

Holding the line for Angola’s elephants

See the project in action in this film about Project Nzau

The post A Lifeline for Angola’s Forest Elephants appeared first on Wildlife Conservation Network.