FROM WAR TO RECOVERY: BIODIVERSITY, DEFAUNATION AND ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN BICUAR NATIONAL PARK, ANGOLA

Abstract

This article sought to synthesise the available evidence on post-conflict ecological recovery in Bicuar National Park (Huíla, southwestern Angola; ≈7,900 km²). An evidence-weighted narrative review was carried out, integrating historical data, camera-trapping and occupancy modelling (2015–2023) and recent literature on vegetation, mammals, birds and herpetofauna, with an explicit hierarchy of evidence (direct, indirect and inference). Four decades of civil war (1961–2002) were associated with severe defaunation, with the loss or sharp reduction of about 40% of the historically recorded medium and large mammal species. Vegetation showed low local tree diversity (48 species and 18 families in 15 one-hectare plots) but high floristic distinctiveness, with 27 species absent from the comparison sites. Occupancy shows a positive trend in 17 of 27 focal species, but large carnivores, migratory ungulates and elephants remain heavily depleted. It is concluded that Bicuar represents a real but asymmetric recovery, in which natural recovery should be complemented by active, evidence-based and carefully sequenced restoration.