Protecting Angola’s Elephants and Supporting Local Communities

The EPIF’s Jose Agostinho has recently returned from a field trip assessing human-elephant conflict (HEC) involving a little known elephant population that lives in the hills and forests east of the capital Luanda. He sent this report.

Jose (in green t-shirt) assesses crop damage with INBAC officials and villagers

"I spent three days travelling across hilly woodlands and savannahs in Kwanza Norte province, with colleagues from Angola’s wildlife authority, INBAC. Our mission was to learn from farmers and villagers about the growing impact of human-elephant conflict in the region, which has been receiving widespread coverage in the Angolan media. We travelled slowly, often on dirt roads, through forests, banana and coffee plantations, and farms of other crops and fruit trees.

We discovered that an estimated 100-150 elephants reside in the province, and they also migrate into the neighbouring provinces of Bengo and Uíge, to the north-west and northeast. The elephants live in a series of distinct, smaller groups, comprising perhaps 20-30 individual animals, but occasionally form a larger herd of up to 50. There are no nature reserves in the area, so the elephants move between unprotected forests and farms, where they typically raid crops during the rainy season.

We learnt that human-elephant conflict is a serious issue in Kwanza Norte, with incidents reported in almost all of the municipalities. For example, outside the town of Maria Teresa, in Massangano, elephants had visited the local farms on the morning of our visit. They had left by the time we arrived, but their tracks were still visible. Local people told us they had abandoned their farms and been unable to work that day. The elephants had calves; hence, they were agitated and posed a threat to the farmers.

Photos taken around Ngonguembo, in Kwanza Norte province, where farmers complain of crop destruction by elephants

Many farmers resent the elephants. We were carrying out surveys to gauge local attitudes; all our interviewees expressed frustration, as well as a strong desire that INBAC should move the animals to a national park. We were told of exasperated farmers who had given up trying to grow crops altogether and moved to Luanda instead.

In the town of Cerca, a local chief (‘soba’) told us that elephants had killed five people between 2022 and 2025. Manuel Joao Manuel, a retired teacher in Bula Tumba, said there is ‘no truce’ between elephants and farmers. In Ngunguembo, Julia Manuel, who grows bananas, corn, cassava, cocoa and sugar cane on half a hectare of land, told us, ‘They are a nuisance and take our food; elephants are good for nature, but they should stay away from the fields.’ Some farmers had developed ad-hoc mitigation methods to frighten elephants; banging drums with wooden sticks, or lighting fire, using diesel. Our interviewees told us that these methods are not effective, and they were giving up on them.

We will use the results of our survey to assess which mitigation responses will work best for the farmers and develop suitable information tools. We will prioritise hotspots, as well as identify potential trainees from within communities. These are only the essential first steps, as we seek to improve the lives of tens of thousands of farmers, but also assist in the protection of a vulnerable and little-studied elephant population."