According to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, that VerAngola had access to, the Secretary of State gave "the starting shot for the opening of the official 2025 hunting season" during a ceremony held at the Fazenda de Pecuarização Carivo in Benguela.
"Under the motto 'Educating for Conscious and Selective Hunting, to Protect Species and Ensure the Sustainable Development of Wildlife,' the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MINAGRIF) has resumed hunting, after being suspended for almost twenty years, throughout the country, to allow the regrouping and multiplication of animal populations and the creation of conditions for their efficient and sustainable management," the ministry's statement reads.
According to the new regulations, the hunting season will run from August 1st to December 31st of each year.
"The hunting season, according to the new regulations, runs from August 1st to December 31st of each year," and is "thus defined as the time of year when natural and ecological conditions allow hunting, minimizing risks to the survival and sustainability of wildlife."
In statements at the time, the Secretary of State stated that the ministry, "by opening the hunting season, is complying with Presidential Decree No. 222/18 of October 25th, which approves the Regulations for Hunting and Sustainable Wildlife Management."
According to João Cunha, "all the conditions have been created for more sustainable hunting, economic diversification, job creation, and the country being able to compete with other countries in the region in terms of hunting tourism, so that we can all benefit."
The new regulation replaces colonial legislation, "in particular Decree No. 40,040 of January 20, 1955, which established the precepts intended to protect soil, flora, and fauna."
This "recent legal instrument constitutes the legal tool that will guide not only hunting and the use of wildlife resources, but also the standards for their protection and conservation, considering their social, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions," the statement reads.
In this regard, the Secretary of State "called on the provincial governments and the Angolan hunters' association to help publicize the recently approved Hunting Regulations."
At the ceremony — presided over by the Secretary of State for Forests and attended by the Vice-Governor of Benguela Province for Technical Services and Infrastructure, Adilson Gonçalves, the Municipal Administrator of Baía Farta, Evaristo Calopa Mário, national and provincial directors, the hunters' association, and experts from the Conservation Force — MINAGRIF's Legal Office Director, Moisés Esteves, presented the "rules on restrictions and prohibitions on hunting, hunters' obligations, types of hunting and permitted weapons, penalties, and other details that will now apply to hunting."
In turn, the Vice-Governor of Benguela, Adilson Gonçalves, expressed his gratitude for choosing Benguela to host this ceremony.
"We are honored to have been chosen to host this important event. On behalf of our province, we thank you for the opportunity you have given us. This will certainly also be an opportunity to promote organized hunting tourism," he said.
The president of the Hunters' Association, Mário Rui Ribeiro, applauded the government's decision.
"It is a memorable day and an indelible moment. After all these years, today we are celebrating this victory for hunters and the government. From now on, we will do everything possible to comply with the legal provisions and thus promote sustainable, legal hunting and also, in some way, combat poaching, which has caused great harm to our fauna. We can say that before being hunters, we are also conservationists of the species," he said.
"The opening of the hunting season also served as an opportunity to award the first hunting licenses, according to the new regulations. The president of the hunting association and 10 other members were honored," the statement reads, adding that "provisional certificates were also issued to livestock farms authorized to practice sport hunting and other activities in a sustainable manner."
The Ministry of Forestry also states that "the preparatory process and the entire process of reopening hunting in Angola was preceded by painstaking multisectoral work by technicians from the Institute for Forestry Development (IDF), from the National Forestry Directorate, with the institutional collaboration of the National Agency for the Management of the Okavango Region (ANAGERO), on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism, the National Institute for Biodiversity and Conservation Areas (INBAC) on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, as well as the Ministry of the Interior".
In addition, the country also had the "technical support of consultants from Conservation Force, a public foundation in the United States of America, dedicated to wildlife conservation, education, research and public service, with which the IDF has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Development of Hunting and Sustainable Wildlife Management."
