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Right now, on the high plateau that covers most of Angola, the rainy season is nearly over. Trillions of gallons of rain have fallen since October and, for the next six months, this water will flow and seep into the surrounding landscape. Traveling through woodlands, savannas, source lakes, wetlands, and even deserts, the rain captured in the Angola Highlands will send ripples across the African continent.

One thousand miles downstream, much of this water will settle in the Okavango Delta, a globally renowned oasis in the Kalahari Desert. Its wetlands and waterholes draw giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, lions, elephants, hippos, antelopes, and millions of birds in an astounding symphony of life, all orchestrated by water from the highlands. If the Angola Highlands were lost, the Okavango Delta would become as barren as the desert around it.

This is reason enough to protect this incredible watershed. But the end of the water’s flow is only the beginning of the story.

Here are 4 more reasons we must act now to protect the Angola Highlands:

1.  Rivers

The Angola Highlands Water Tower feeds the basins of 11 rivers, including the Congo, which runs like a lifeline through the heart of the world’s second-largest rainforest. The headwaters of the Zambezi River rise here, too, launching a 2,000-mile cascade through nine countries—including a monumental drop over Victoria Falls—before a final release to the Indian Ocean.

The Cuito River seeps slowly from the highlands, creating source lakes and peatlands that release water throughout the dry season. The Cubango River flows more quickly down the rocky slopes of the plateau. They converge in Namibia to form the Kavango River, which is called the Okavango once it enters Botswana and carves into the Kalahari Desert to settle in the world’s largest inland delta. The Okavango Delta receives 95% of its seasonal floodwaters from these rivers.

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2.  Biodiversity

Local knowledge has long recognized the highlands’ ecological value, as reflected in the Luchazi name for this landscape: Lisima Lya Mwono, or “Source of Life.” But scientific study of the region is relatively new, due to the 27-year civil war that made access impossible. In 2025, after a decade of biological surveys, scientists recorded 275 species new to science, and 300 species scientifically documented in Angola for the first time.

Lisima also holds one of the largest intact, unprotected expanses of Miombo woodlands on the planet. This tropical forest is characterized by a long dry season and features a patchwork of wooded shrublands, grasslands, and savannas that stretches 1.5 million miles across southern-central Africa. Miombo woodlands are not dense, but they are exceptionally diverse. Their combination of open spaces and forest cover supports wide-ranging megafauna, like elephants and lions, along with 8,500 plant species.

3.  Carbon

Angola’s high plateau has absorbed an immeasurable amount of precipitation over millennia. In the Cuito River basin, waterlogged soil and plant matter have gradually created peatlands that store more carbon than almost anywhere else in Africa. (Only the vast peat swamps of the Congo Basin hold more.) They also filter water and regulate seasonal flows.

These peatlands have only just begun to be mapped, but the 3.1-million-acre area of Angola Highlands that we are helping protect will secure 300 million metric tons of stored carbon, equivalent to the emissions from the annual energy use of 62.5 million U.S. homes.

4.  People

One million people rely on fresh water from the rivers and lakes that arise in the Angola Highlands. The water’s power surges through seven countries (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique) to provide food, livelihoods, and materials that are essential for rural ways of life.

With roots that reach deep into the landscape, the people who live within Lisima Lya Mwono practice traditions of stewardship that are central to lasting conservation. Local knowledge must inform long-term management, and our partnership with local NGO Fundação Lisima in Angola is grounded in community-led conservation that prioritizes local practices.

You can make a difference for the Angola highlands. Your gift on Earth Day will support our partnership with Fundação Lisima to help protect 3.1 million acres of this extraordinary landscape.

All donations will be matched until we reach our goal of $100,000. That means you can have double the impact for the Angola Highlands, the Okavango Delta, Africa’s mighty rivers, and the species and people who need them to survive.

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