Roots of Peace and Conservation International to Clear Angolan Landmines to Protect Elephants and People

Project will boost creation of transboundary conservation area stretching across five Southern African countries

Washington, DC (Nov. 7, 2005) – A region made impassable by civil war in recent decades will be cleared of landmines to allow huge elephant herds to resume their normal movements  in southern Africa, and people to walk safely in their homeland.

Roots of Peace (RoP) and Conservation International (CI) are partners in a project to remove landmines sown during Angola’s 26-year civil war from critical access corridors used by elephants that migrate between northern Botswana and prime wildlife regions in Angola and Zambia. Once the landmines have been removed, CI proposes to develop ecotourism programs in the area to benefit local communities.

“Our goal is to remove the seeds of war and terror, restoring routes of peace for elephants to travel and people to walk without fear,” said RoP founder Heidi Kuhn. “Like the grape vines planted in former minefields in Afghanistan, the elephant pathways of peace in Angola will signify a new era for a nation that has known so much misery.”

The roughly 1,500 square kilometers to be demined are in the Luiana Partial Game Reserve in southeastern Angola  (See Map – Page 3). Emplaced during the Angolan conflict that ended in 2002, landmines have formed deadly barriers for humans and wildlife in Cuando-Cubango Province. They prevent area residents from walking safely on their land or cultivating their fields.

Similarly, the 130,000 elephants of northern Botswana cannot re-establish themselves in their historical foraging areas in Angola and Zambia because of the landmines that create a manmade barrier separating the Chobe region from the upper Cuando and Zambezi Rivers. These “hidden killers” greatly reduce the ranging area of the elephants within the proposed multi-country Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza TFCA).

To restore nature’s balance and human livelihood, landmines and other explosive remnants of war must be cleared from critical parts of the Kaza TFCA to restore safe passage from northern Botswana through Namibia’s Caprivi Strip and into Angola and Zambia. Following a demining effort, elephants will naturally re-establish themselves in the region that spans four countries. Sustainable reserve and ecotourism programs can then be developed to ensure the protection of elephants and other wildlife while benefiting local agriculture and economic development.

The demining will occur in coordination with the National Government of Angola, the Provincial Government of Cuando-Cubango, RoP, CI, and the U.N. Development Program-Angola. RoP will contract directly with demining organizations and work with Angola-based staff funded by the U.S. Department of State. CI will then take part in ecotourism development based on wildlife conservation within the Luiana reserve, thereby contributing toward social and environmental well-being in the region.

“Removing these landmines, which are vestiges of civil war and the misery it caused, means new hope for the region’s people and the great elephant herds that are overpopulating northern Botswana,” said Olivier Langrand, the CI senior vice president in charge of Africa and Madagascar. “This partnership with Roots of Peace, the U.S. and Angolan governments, the U.N. Development Program, and local authorities is a model for progressive conservation all over the world.”

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Roots of Peace (www.rootsofpeace.org) is a California-based non-profit with the mission of removing landmines from mine-affected countries and returning mined agricultural land to productive use. Roots of Peace is one of the U.S. Department of State’s public-private partners in humanitarian landmine action.

Conservation International, a non-profit headquartered in Washington, D.C.,  (www.conservation.org) works in 40 countries on four continents to conserve the earth’s living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live in harmony with nature.

Contacts:        Heidi Kuhn                           Tom Cohen

                       Roots of Peace                    Conservation International

                        415-455-8008                     202-912-1532