Luena - The National Geographic scientific expedition project has discovered over 100 new species of animals in Angola in the last eight years, including reptiles, fish, mammals, amphibians and others, the director of National Geographic in Angola, Karlien Costa, said Monday.
Costa disclosed the information during the presentation of a project called Wildlife, as part of a workshop to mark the World Environment Day celebrated on June 5.
According to Costa, these species were discovered in a 150,000 square kilometres area, covering the provinces of Bié, Cuando Cubango, particularly Moxico, specifically in the Témpue commune,Luchazes Municipality, where the largest number of rare species were found.
Karlien Costa added that the discovery is the result of a search expedition that began in 2015 in Cuando, Cuanavale, Cuito, Cuvaguin, Cassai, Lunguembungo and Zambezi rivers.
Costa added that despite the result, studies will continue as a system of cameras and moving sensors is installed to capture necessary information in the research areas.
The National Geographic senior technician, Vladimir Russo, highlighted the potential of the area known as Lisima lya Mwono (Source of Life), located in Moxico province, which covers the communes of Cangumbe and Lituai, as well as the town of Cangamba, Tempué and Cassamba communes, in the municipalities of Moxico and Luchazes, respectively.
The area covers approximately 53,000 square kilometres, with an altitude that varies between 1,142 metres and 1,681 metres above the sea level.
Russo said the area sustains the life of important species of fauna and flora and plays an important role for over a million people.
The deputy governor of Moxico, for Technical Services and Infrastructure, Wilson Augusto, underlined that the preservation and conservation of the environment should be a daily concern of all.
Augusto called for the strengthening of environmental education and the inspection and monitoring mechanism to avoid harmful practices to the environment, such as poaching, indiscriminate felling of trees, uncontrolled burning, among other practices.
The workshop took place under the theme "Solutions to plastic pollution". marked the World Environment Day celebration.
The World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5, with the aim to create a critical and active posture, in relation to environmental problems existing on the planet. MT/TC/YD/AMP/jmc
