Luanda – The President of the Republic, João Lourenço is travelling today, Friday, to the province of Namibe, where he will inaugurate the Iona National Park, among other activities.
According to the press service of the President of the Republic, the opening of the Iona National Park will take place on Saturday, May 18th.
Before leaving Namibe, on Sunday, João Lourenço will lead a meeting with the provincial government, to find out about the socio-economic situation in the region, as part of his open presidency program.
Situated in the Namib Desert, in the southwest corner of Angola, with a 160 km long coastline adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, Iona Park is one of the most sublime wilderness areas, with fertile terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Its central sands are bordered to the east by mountains that reach heights of 2,000 meters and to the west by dunes along the entire coast.
Fed by two bordering rivers, the Cunene and the Curoca, the park contains extensive forests and is inhabited by cheetahs and leopards, herds of oryx, gazelles and Hartmann's zebras, ostriches, endemic reptiles and is the main habitat of the world's oldest plants. Welwitschia mirabilis
Iona National Park is regionally important and forms part of a transfrontier conservation area (TFCA) with the Skeleton Coast National Park in Namibia.
Historically, the park was inhabited by rhinos and elephants, but both species have completely disappeared from this area and other wild animals have also been decimated.
Uncontrolled human activities by peripheral populations and the park, including livestock grazing, place further pressure on its ecosystems. ART/SC/DOJ
