Five nations have agreed to launch the world's largest international conservation area to protect nearly half of Africa's elephants and a vast range of animals, birds and plants, many of them endangered by poaching and human encroachment.

At a ceremony in Namibia on Thursday government ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe put their official seal on a transfrontier treaty set to combine conservation in 36 nature preserves and surrounding areas.

(READ the AP story from Washington Post)