Iona

Iona National Park was established in 1964 in south-western Angola, in Namibe province, and at some 15,200 km² it is the largest in the country. Its territory had been protected as a game reserve since 1937.

It occupies the northern end of the Namib Desert, between the Cunene River, which marks the border with Namibia, and the Atlantic coast. The landscape combines dune fields, gravel plains, rocky massifs and a coastline beaten by the cold Benguela Current, with coastal fog as the main source of moisture, just as in the Namibian Namib.

Among its vegetation the welwitschia stands out, the two-leaved plant that can live more than a thousand years and is one of the most singular plant organisms on the planet, along with succulents and commiphoras adapted to extreme aridity. The wildlife, greatly reduced during Angola's long civil war, includes gemsbok, springbok, Hartmann's mountain zebra and, sparsely, cheetah and desert elephant. Since 2019 the park has been managed under an agreement with African Parks, with wildlife recovery programmes. The territory is inhabited by Himba and Kuvale communities, semi-nomadic herders whose rights of use are a central part of the management model.