Angola: A Letter from Our CEO – Rainforest Trust

Finally, last year, Steve’s Fundação Lisima (short for Lisima Lya Mwono or “Source of Life” in the local language, Luchazi) worked with Conserve Global and Rainforest Trust’s Africa team to develop an ambitious but achievable plan. Building on traditional governance, they will create five “Conservation Kingdoms” to formally protect 3.15 million acres of the Water Tower, with more to follow. Initially, protection will be implemented under the authority of local chiefs (or kings). However, I’ve met with Angolan Minister of Environment Ana Paula de Carvalho Pereira four times over the past two years and she has pledged to me that the government will legally formalize this designation as some type of protected area or community conservation area.

Steve never rests. At lunch, he explained that adjacent to the Water Tower is an area of uninhabited miombo that historically was reserved for personal hunting by the local chief, and that this area and this chief see this as a great area to pioneer complete nature protection and responsible tourism development. Rainforest Trust’s new Council Member, Colin Bell, founder of Wilderness Safaris (and probably the individual responsible more than anyone else for the protection of the Okavango through sustainable tourism) is intrigued. And Steve is working on potential long-term funding for management of the new protected areas from the Rob Walton Foundation, De Beers (the well-regarded diamond mining company that provides much of Botswana’s foreign exchange), and a new international partnership.

Rainforest Trust’s role is critical right now. We will be the largest funder of the legal protection of the Lisima Landscape, the catalytic step from vision to long-term management and sustainable development. We’ve pledged $4.5 million, and I invite you to join us in fulfilling Steve’s extraordinary vision. If you are able, I would be hugely grateful for your help to safeguard the waters of the Okavango Delta and protect the largest unprotected miombo woodland in Africa with hundreds of species new to science.

You can learn more about the project by visiting Rainforest Trust’s website, by viewing the documentary, Ghost Elephants, which is currently streaming on Disney, YouTube, and Hulu, or by picking up the June issue of National Geographic magazine, which has a wonderful article about Steve and the Water Tower.

Thank you, as ever, for caring deeply about species and our planet—and maybe for your contribution to this project. It is so exciting finally to see Steve’s (and Paul’s) vision becoming real!

With thanks and celebration,

James C. Deutsch
CEO, Rainforest Trust

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