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Celebrating 30 Years of Independence 30 Years of Conservation
The constitution adopted when Namibia became independent not only aimed at ensuring the well-being of the residents but, in what was a radical move at the time, also included the protection of the environment. An impressive milestone as the first country in Africa to do so as well as being one of the first in the world.
Apart from incorporating the environment, Namibia was also the first in Africa that allowed residents of communal areas to manage their natural resources through the creation of communal conservancies. This legislation, through cooperation between the government, NGOs and other entities, led to the creation of conservancies to restore and protect populations of wildlife, especially endangered animals. A success story that eventually resulted in Namibia possessing the world’s largest freeroaming populations of cheetah and black rhino living outside of protected areas. Sustainable income can be generated thanks to efforts from communities to conserve these animals and their habitats and through initiatives such as joint ventures with private lodges, ecotourism and hunting concessions. That income empowers communities who would otherwise live impoverished lives due to lack of employment in these undeveloped rural areas.
The extent to which the country’s natural environment is protected is exceptionally impressive, as to date more than three-quarters of Namibia is under some form of conservation management. Namibia ranks as one of the countries with the most protected land in the world. 20 state-run protected areas are covering about 17 percent of the country’s land surface. These areas conserve biodiversity and the ecosystem by protecting some of the country’s most important habitats and species of national and global significance. Namibia is the only country where the entire coastline is part of a protected area. Stretching a massive 1 570 kilometres from the Kunene River in the north to the Orange River in the south, the area links 12 000 square kilometres of Atlantic coastal belt to almost 110 000 square kilometres of Namib Desert.
Apart from state-protected land and conservancies, private landholders in Namibia have played a hugely significant role in the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats by converting commercial farmland into private nature reserves.
The largest is NamibRand Nature Reserve which covers a vast area of the southern Namib Desert. The reserve covers an area of more than 200 000 ha and plays a criticallyimportant role in facilitating seasonal migratory wildlife routes and protecting biodiversity. NamibRand shares a 100 km border with Namib-Naukluft National Park.
Namibia has three transfrontier conservation areas in which protected areas span more than one country. The largest of them is the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) in the northeast. KAZA combines a total of approximately 520 000 km 2 of adjacent protected areas in Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. One of the main objectives is joining fragmented wildlife habitats and creating transboundary wildlife corridors which facilitate and enhance the free movement of animals across international boundaries. Straddling the south-western border between Namibia and
South Africa, the /Ai-/Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park conserves a large part of the Succulent Karoo Biome on an area of 6 045 km 2 . While in the far north-western corner of Namibia theSkeleton Coast National Park and Angola’s oldest and largest park, Iona National Park (Parque Nacional do Iona), meet at the Kunene River and form a joint protected area of 31 500 km 2 .
As Namibia inherited proclaimed parks and protected areas at independence, conservation became part of the constitution. Over the past 30 years, extensive efforts by the government, NGOs and private companies have massively increased the protected areas and have also played a very important role in boosting conservation efforts to make Namibia a conservation success story. Something we can be proud of and be thrilled to share with future generations.
Le Roux van Schalkwyk
