Sometimes you have to put on your only suit and tie to represent something you care about deeply. In this case, it’s the localisation of conservation activities as part of our multi-generational commitment to sustainable, long-term conservation programs that directly benefit local people. “Pride, Ownership, Community, and Purpose”, the four pillars of 21st century conservation and natural resource management. On 15 February 2024, with the generous support of @insidenatgeo and @debeersofficial, we launched @fundacaolisima, a locally-led Angolan conservation NGO, at an event in Luanda. Fundação Lisima works with the @nkashibw Trust in Botswana and the Kavango Wilderness Project in Namibia to implement the @intotheokavango Wilderness Project in partnership with the @wildbirdtrust. “Lisima lya Mwono”, which means “Source of Life” in local Luchazi, is the name given to the eastern Angolan Highlands, the most important of the recently-described “Angolan Highlands Water Tower” (see video). This is Africa’s largest hydrological structure receiving over 423 cubic kilometres of freshwater every year. These vast forested watersheds provides a crucial buffering effect to the impacts of El Niño, arguably the world’s most important climatic phenomenon. Known previously as the “Terra do fim do Mundo”, the “Land at the End of the Earth”, by the 19th and 20th century Portuguese explorers and traders, the Lisima Landscape is still protected by its remote inaccessibility and vast impenetrable forests. Over 25,000 square kilometres of peatlands, 11 million hectares of near-pristine Miombo woodlands, 26 acidic source lakes, and 154 new species to science remained undocumented and undescribed until the 21st century; a place for lost things. Fundação Lisima is working with the local Luchazi people to establish community-driven systems of protection that use traditional knowledge and culture as the primary mechanisms for natural resource management. This work aims to better protect the sources and headwaters of the Okavango, Kwando, Zambezi, Kwanza, and Congo Rivers, southern and central Africa’s major rivers. The geopolitical importance is extraordinary. Photo: @fundacaolisima