Buco-Zau (also spelled Buco Zau) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Cabinda Province Cabinda (formerly called Portuguese Congo, ) is an exclave and province of Angola, a status that has been disputed by several political organizations in the territory. The capital city is also called Cabinda, known locally as ''Tchiowa'', ''Tsi ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. The municipality is situated within the Maiombe forest and covers an area of . Beginning in the 2000s, logging and oil companies have heavily

deforested Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

the area in and around Buco-Zau, leading to conflict with the local populace. Buco-Zau had a population of 32,792 at the time of 2014 census.

Etymology

The name Buco-Zau is of Kikongo origin and was chosen on 19 May 1957 by Simão Toco, an Angolan Christian who proclaimed himself a prophet and founded his own derivative church. In Kikongo, and means "place", "local" or " owncentre", while means elephants. Buco-Zau can therefore be translated as "place of elephants" or "land of elephants".

Geography

Buco-Zau covers an area of , of which is covered by the Maiombe forest, the second largest forest in the world (only behind the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

). The municipality has been heavily

over the years; researchers at José Eduardo dos Santos University's Faculty of Agricultural Sciences estimated that of forest in Buco-Zau had been deforested between 2000 and 2017. Since the early 2000s, locals in Buco-Zau and the neighbouring town of Fútila have been in frequent conflict with logging and oil companies in the area.

Demographics

The 2014 census recorded a population of 33,843 in Buco-Zau.

Economy

The economy of Buco-Zau revolves primarily around the

wood industry The wood industry or timber industry (sometimes lumber industry – when referring mainly to sawed boards) is the industry (economics), industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and woo ...

; the municipality has the highest timber extraction rate in Angola. Other economic activities include agriculture and

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

. Buco-Zau was the first place in Angola from which gold was exported.

References

{{Cabinda Province Populated places in Cabinda Province Municipalities of Angola