Updated account of Angola's remarkable biodiversity

CITATION: Van Wilgen, B. W. 2020. Updated account of Angola's remarkable biodiversity. South African Journal of Science, 116(1/2):a0318, doi:10.17159/sajs.2020/a0318.The original publication is available at https://sajs.co.zaAngola is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, yet relatively little is known about the species that occur there, or the ecosystems in which they live. There were, compared to southern and eastern Africa, relatively few naturalists who documented the biota of the country, and much of what they published is difficult to access or is now out of print. Just when the world started to take ecological research seriously in the mid- 1970s, Angola was plunged into a devastating civil war that was to last for more than a quarter of a century. A peace settlement was finally reached in 2002, but in the intervening years almost no scientific activity was possible. The situation has changed for the better since then, and scientific exploration and research have resumed, albeit under challenging circumstances. This book provides a modern synthesis of what is known about Angola’s biodiversity from early work that was published in ‘extinct journals and inaccessible official reports’ as well as more recent findings, and outlines opportunities for further work and collaboration in an exciting and relatively unexplored part of the world. The book has 20 chapters by 45 contributing authors, and is divided into five parts: an introductory part that sets the scene; chapters dealing with flora, vegetation and landscape change; two parts on invertebrate (two chapters) and vertebrate (seven chapters) diversity respectively; and a concluding part examining research and conservation opportunities. The book is well illustrated, with many colour photographs and maps.https://sajs.co.za/article/view/7876Publisher's versio