Wildlife mammal communities in post-war Angola are depleted and simplified: Implications for biodiversity conservation

Armed conflicts are recognized to significantly impact wildlife, as they are particularly prevalent in biodiversity hotspot areas. Understanding these impacts on biodiversity is important for comprehending the indirect consequences for ecosystem processes and promoting their rehabilitation. Although the impact of warfare on protected areas (PAs) has been a target of research, its understanding remains limited. Additionally, the influence of armed conflicts on biodiversity in non-protected lands has been largely overlooked and underexplored. We aim to assess the impact of almost 40 years of armed conflicts on intermediate- and large-sized mammals in two communities in southern Angola: a National Park with limited management capacity—Bicuar National Park (BNP)—and a recently established private ecotourism reserve, without legal protection—Cuatir Conservation Area (CCA). Specifically, we compared contemporary species richness, occupancy probabilities and evenness-weighted diversity between the two areas, and contextualize it relative to historical records. Our results reveal a significant loss of species compared to known mammal species richness prior to the civil unrest, with some remaining species persisting at very low occupancy levels. Furthermore, our findings suggest equivalent contemporary biodiversity levels in both study areas, albeit with distinct community compositions and structures. Although both areas retained a relatively intact small- and intermediate-sized mammal community, the PA better conserved the larger species community. Furthermore, occupancy probabilities of endangered and threatened species were higher in the PA than in the non-PA. Our results underscore the critical role of PAs in conserving threatened species, even amidst limited law enforcement capacity and rehabilitation measures. Additionally, we highlight the significance of the non-PA in conserving wildlife species and ecological processes on a larger scale. Our results support the idea that well-preserved non-PAs often harbor crucial wildlife nuclei and facilitate connectivity between populations, thereby aiding natural recolonizations. As such, these areas should be the focus of policies encouraging restoration and facilitating functional connections with protected areas.