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Our ultimate goal is to ensure the long term survival of Angola's endemic birds. The focus of our conservation work is in line with the priorities set by BirdLife International: the most threatened birds and their habitats. The Western Angola Endemic Bird Area holds most all of the Threatened endemics and near-endemics, except for White-headed Robin Chat. The most important habitats of this EBA are the Afromontane Forests and the Escarpment Forests.

We have initiated conservation projects in each of these main habitats, after a long and careful site selection exercise.

Our main focus in the Afromontane forests is Mount Moco, Angola's highest mountain and the second most important area for Afromontane forest in Angola. It has 85 ha of forest and a significant population of the only threatened Afromontane endemic, the Endangered Swierstra's Francolin. The forests are being threatened by the subsistence activies of people, and to these ends we have launched the Mount Moco project. The second site that we have just begun to work at is in the Namba mountains, where almost 600 ha of forest remains. This site is naturally better protected from human disturbance, due to its remoteness and the rugged terrain, and is hence of less urgent importance.

In the scarp forests the situation is more complex, with larger tracts of forest but also much larger human populations that are rapidly degrading the remaining forest. We have chosen to ininitate a project at Kumbira forest, where there are important populations of Gabela Akalat, Gabela Bushshrike, Monteiro's Bushshrike and Pulitzer's Longbill. And of course Angola's iconic national bird, Red-crested Turaco.

The two remaining threatened species not captured thus far by our conservation strategy are Gabela Helmetshrike that occurs in areas below the escarpment and Braun's Bushshrike which only occurs in the northern scarp forests.

We are also in the process of updating bird lists for each of the Important Bird Areas.

This website is designed and maintained by Michael Mills.