Kitabanga: Returning Millions of Sea Turtles to Angola's Coast

Fundação Kissama, Angola's oldest biodiversity NGO, co-runs the Kitabanga Project with the Department of Biology at Universidade Agostinho Neto to study and protect sea turtles nesting along more than 100 km of Angola's Atlantic coastline, spanning six coastal provinces. The project combines nest monitoring and hatchery protection with environmental education and a social-inclusion program that has turned dozens of former turtle fishers into paid conservation partners. Kitabanga has been running since 2003 and by 2023 had released an estimated five million hatchlings into the ocean. Fundação Kissama also leads Angola's giant sable antelope research and the reforestation of the highly threatened Mount Moco afromontane forest.