Namib Skeleton Coast National Park
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Namib Skeleton Coast National Park
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 Namib-Naukluft Park before sunrise |
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| location | Namibia |
| surface | 107,540 km² |
| WDPA ID | 885 |
| Geographical location | 24 ° 33 ′ S , 15 ° 20 ′ E |
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| Setup date | 2009/2010 |
| administration | Ministry of Environment and Tourism |
The Namib Skeleton Coast National Park ( English Namib Skeleton Coast National Park ) is the largest protected area in Namibia and the eighth largest on earth. It is part of the Iona-Skeleton Coast cross-border park .
Through a preliminary proclamation in 2009 of the National Park from the individual national parks went Skeleton Coast , Namib-Naukluft National Park , restricted area and Dorob National Park , the Fish River Canyon and the marine reserve Meob-Chamais forth.
In the long term, this national park, together with the planned Kunene Volkspark and Etosha National Park, should form one of the largest national parks in the world.
Position and extent
The national park stretches along the entire 1,570 km long coast of Namibia from the Oranje in the south to the Kunene in the north. The national park reaches a width of 25 km at the narrowest point of the Skeleton Coast up to 180 km in the central Naukluft Mountains . It covers an area of 10.754 million hectares and joins numerous formal and informal private protected areas and concession areas .
In the north the park borders on the Iona National Park in Angola , in the south on the Richtersveld National Park in South Africa . The Namib Skeleton Coast is managed across borders with the national parks in Angola and continues to be managed as the ǀAi-ǀAis Richtersveld Transfrontier Conservation Area with South Africa.
Administrative areas
Due to its huge area, the national park is divided internally in the Ministry of the Environment into management areas:
- Skeleton coast
- Dorob (former West Coast National Recreation Area )
- Namib-Naukluft
- Meob chamais
- Restricted area
Persist:
Skeleton Coast National Park
As Skeleton Coast , the northern, of will Swakopmund to the Kunene , which forms the border with Angola, reaching part of the hostile Namib - Desert in Namibia called. Originally area was north of the Ugab , which covers about 16,845 square kilometers, 1971 as the Skeleton Coast National Park ( English Skeleton Coast National Park provided) under protection, today it forms part of the larger Namib Skeleton Coast National Park.
Geologically, a large part of the Skeleton Coast, with an age of up to 1.5 billion years, is one of the oldest rock formations on earth. Fog, heavy surf and an unpredictable current - the Benguela Current - have always made the coast dangerous for seafaring, but also for the whales that used to pass here in large numbers . Several wrecks on the beach and numerous bones of stranded whales bear witness to this. Shipwrecked people who landed here had no chance of survival in the desert - hence the name.
The Skeleton Coast is a recreational area open to the general public in the southern part up to Torra Bay and is especially popular with anglers because of its abundance of fish. Their onslaught has created several fishing camps. One of these camps has since developed into a real city: Henties Bay .
The northern nature reserve on the Skeleton Coast, stretching 500 km from the Ugab Rivier to the Kunene , was known as the Skeleton Coast National Park . In the east, the 16,845 km² administrative area borders on the Kaokoveld . The area consists of two zones, the southern one is freely accessible and the northern one may only be visited in a small area under the guidance of appropriately licensed travel companies that run a few overnight camps here.
The entrance to the park is a few kilometers north of mile 108 in front of the Ugab, one of the largest rivers in the Namib, which has dug a wild and impressive canyon into the layers of marble , dolomite and slate . The park consists of a gray gravel area, only 100 km north of the park entrance at Torra Bay begin dune fields.
A former oil drilling station is located on the beach north of the Huab Rivier and serves as a breeding ground for Cape cormorants . A few kilometers north of Torra Bay is the wreck of the Atlantic Pride and in a canyon made of colored sandstone there is a waterfall in the middle of the desert.
In the northern part of the coastal park, a special natural phenomenon can be observed or heard near the Hoarusib Rivier: the roaring dunes of Terrace Bay . The dune sand is made in such a way that with a certain wind strength and direction it slides down the dune slope similar to a slab of snow and generates a friction noise resonated by the dune body, which resembles an approaching aircraft squadron and can be heard over many kilometers.
Wildlife
The great abundance of fish has also attracted other guests: South African fur seals , also known as ear seals . They live in huge colonies with up to 300,000 animals on the entire Atlantic coast of Namibia. B. at Kap Frio or at the Kreuzkap .
Despite their hostility to life, there is a very rich animal life on the Skeleton Coast - partly supported by food from the large seal colonies, as well as black -backed jackals , black-backed hyenas and a few desert lions - but also, independently of that, elephants , giraffes and rhinos , gemsbok , kudu and zebras . Special features of the Namib are also the endemic sand shield lizard and the mist-drinker beetle . The flora consists u. a. made of lichen , the pencil bush Arthraerua leubnitziae , naras and living stones .
A special phenomenon of the Skeleton Coast are the once legendary desert elephants . “Fabulous” mainly because locals kept reporting about their sightings, but according to scientific findings, elephants allegedly could not have existed under the prevailing conditions here - lack of water and food. It is not least thanks to the well-known animal filmmaker couple Des and Jen Bartlett that the counter-evidence has now been given. In almost 10 years of work in the Skeleton Coast Park, the Bartletts have tracked down the desert elephants, followed them on foot and by trike , filmed them and documented their special way of life adapted to the desert conditions (films have already been shown in Germany). However, it is still controversial whether these elephants are an independent subspecies of the African elephant.
Dorob National Park
The Central Area ( English Dorob National Park ) is an area between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia .
Originally founded as Walvis Bay Nature Reserve by the South African administration, the park lost its status with the transition from Walvis Bay to Namibia in 1994. Since then the proclamation was planned as Walvis Bay National Park , however the name was changed to Dorob National Park in 2008.
The Dorob National Park includes the Sandwich Harbor areas and the West Coast National Recreation Area .
Namib-Naukluft Park
The Namib-Naukluft administrative area is administered by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism . Originally a national park, the area was proclaimed on August 1, 1979. It has an area of 49,768 km² and was the largest protected area in Namibia.
It is an ecological protection region in the oldest desert in the world, the Namib Desert in Namibia . It borders directly on the Skeleton Coast to the north with the West Coast National Recreation Area and extends to the Diamond Restricted Area in the south . The park also includes the Naukluft Mountains with up to 1965 m above sea level. NN high mountains. To the east of the park is the 2000 km² private, Namib Rand Nature Reserve .
As a national park, it was the largest protected area in Africa. It is home to a whole range of animals that have adapted to this extremely arid desert. These include snakes , geckos , unusual insects , hyenas , oryx , springboks , ostriches and jackals .
Despite the protection status, the northern area, approximately from the Hardap and Erongo regional borders, is open for exploration .
history
The park was created by amalgamating various protected areas. To protect Hartmann's mountain zebras , the Naukluft Zebra Park was founded in 1968 on the site of the Naukluft Farm . In 1970 a corridor to the west was built. On August 1, 1979, together with parts of the Diamond Restricted Area No. 2, the Namib Desert Park was established with an area of 23,340 km². The park reached its current size of 49,768 km² by expanding it to include the entire diamond restricted area no. 2 and parts of diamond restricted area no. 1. He is considering expanding the park south to the South African border when the diamond deposits are exhausted.
As a national park, the area was originally divided into four regions:
Namib
The little moisture that is essential for life comes mainly from the fog from the Atlantic into the desert, the amount of precipitation is about 63 millimeters (l / m²) per year, especially in the months of February to April. The Kuiseb Rivier, which flows into the Atlantic at Walvis Bay, draws a sharp boundary between the northern gray gravel desert and the orange sand desert to the south. The famous Welwitschia grows on the gravel plains . The constant south-west wind, which also brings the fog into the desert, is also responsible for the large sand dunes , whose dark orange is a clear sign of their age. The coloring results from the oxidation of the iron ions contained , which turn into iron oxide (rust). These dunes are the highest in the world and they can reach heights of 300 meters above normal desert levels. The dunes run out to the seashore and there go pretty much directly into the lagoons and the marshland of the Atlantic coast , where countless birds of various species cavort.
You can experience the dunes from the only access in Sesriem, the headquarters of the park. From there a road leads to Sossusvlei , where the Tsauchab rivier ends in the desert. Between the Kuiseb Rivier and the southern border on the connecting road between Lüderitz and Aus there is no other piste that leads into the protected area. Only the gravel plain between Kuiseb and Swakop in the north is crossed by a few slopes.
Alternatively, flights with small planes or hot air balloons are also available - numerous flights are offered from Swakopmund , Walvis Bay and Windhoek .
Naukluft Mountains
In the Naukluft Mountains it rains with an average of 195 mm / year (maximum 500 mm / year) much more than in the desert, which means that lush vegetation is preserved even in the dry season. The mountains made of porous dolomite rock are characterized by deep canyons and form an ideal hiking area. Similar to the Waterberg, there is also a water-impermeable layer at the bottom of the mountain, which leads to numerous springs at approximately the same height.
The Naukluft Mountains are accessible by hiking trails and offer two day hikes ( Olive Trail and Waterkloof Trail ) with the 120 km long Naukluft Hiking Trail, the most difficult hiking trail in southern Africa.
Borderline
The border of the administrative area begins in the northwest at the mouth of the Kuiseb south of Walvis Bay and follows the rivier approx. 30 km to the east. It then runs along the Great Edge step and parallel to the coast to the north to the Swakop Rivier and follows this to the Khan Rivier . This is followed by the border approx. 15 km to the northeast, in order to then cross the Swakop in the east and go south behind the Lange Heinrichberg . This also includes the area with the Welwitschia-Drive and the Welwitschia-Vlakte . The border runs further south over the Kuiseb Pass , Gaub Pass and west of Solitaire through the Rivier des Tsondab , which ends in the Namib. Then the border goes around the Nubib and Naukluft Mountains to Sesriem and across the Tsauchab River. The border then runs over Bushmann Hill (1609 m above sea level) and Chowagasberg (2063 m above sea level) and also forms the western border of the Namib Rand Nature Reserve . Then the border moves slightly to the east to cross the wide plain of the Koichab Rivier south-west of the Tiras Mountains and to follow the B4 national road parallel to Lüderitz west of Aus . About 30 km before Lüderitz, the border of the park goes straight to the north for 75 km and then also straight to the west to the Atlantic, as there is still a small part of the diamond restricted area, the majority of which is south of the B4 between Lüderitz and Aus .
Meob chamais
The area between Meob Bay and Chamais Bay ( English Meob-Chamais Islands 'Marine Protected Area ) on the coast of Namibia has been the country's first marine and island protection area ( English Islands' Marine Protected Area ) since July 2, 2009 .
The area extends from Meob Bay north of the coastal town of Lüderitz over 400 km south to Chamais Bay and 30 km into the Atlantic Ocean . It includes 10 islands and eight other rocks. It covers an area of almost 20,000 km².
The marine reserve serves primarily to protect the unique nature, flora and fauna with more than 14 species of sea birds , African penguins and the world's largest colony of shags ( cormorants , Phalacrocorax neglectus ).
An expansion of the protected area along the entire Namibian Atlantic coast including the planned world natural heritage areas Sandwich Harbor and the lagoon of Walvis Bay is planned.
Restricted area
The restricted area (formerly diamond restricted area A ) describes a region on the Namibian west coast of Africa that surrounds the port city of Lüderitz and extends from the Orange River to the southern border of the Namib-Naukluft National Park . The diamond restricted area has a total area of about 26,000 km², which is roughly ten times the area of the Saarland or the area of Israel and the West Bank together. It is crossed by the national road B4 and includes the coastal section of the Diamond Coast, the so-called Klinghardt Mountains in the interior and the village of Rosh Pinah in the south. The restricted area was proclaimed a national park in 2008 with an area of 26,000 km².
In 1908, assistant August Stauchs found diamonds by chance during the construction of the Lüderitz railway line in the restricted diamond area . Several German diamond companies were founded, which parceled out the find area and directed it to an orderly diamond mining. During this time, such bizarre settlements such as Kolmanskop or Elisabethbucht emerged , which today can only be admired as ghost towns . In 1920 the diamond stores were considered exhausted and they were sold to Ernst Oppenheimer , the founder of the so-called "Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa". This company, which was later taken over by the De Beers Group, perfected diamond mining and expanded it far beyond the original find area to the north and especially to the south. To protect against unlicensed, uncontrolled diamond mining, the entire area was declared a restricted area. Only the city of Lüderitz and the road leading to it were opened to general traffic.
Diamond mining was increasingly industrialized and perfected through the use of large equipment, which led to large-scale changes, but also destruction of the desert landscape. At the same time, however, unique biotopes of great scientific value have been preserved in the restricted area .
After diamond mining increasingly shifted to the mouth of the Orange River, the severe access restrictions were abolished and the area was proclaimed a restricted area National Park . The mining town of Oranjemund , founded by the De Beers Group, is already administered locally and is open to the general public.
literature
- Paula Hardy, Matthew Firestone: Namibia & Botswana . Mair Dumont DE 2007, ISBN 3-8297-1584-6 , p. 74 ( Google Books )
- Elke Loßkarn, Dieter Loßkarn: Namibia . DuMont Reiseverlag, 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4065-6 , p. 89
- Paul Sprigade, H. Lotz: Map of the restricted area in German South West Africa , 10 sheets, 1: 100 000. (Geogr. Verlaghandlung von Dietrich Reimer) Berlin 1913
- Ministry of Environment and Tourism (Ed.): Conservation and the Environment in Namibia 2009/2010. Venture Publications, Windhoek 2009.
- Mary Seely, John Pallett: Namib - Secrets of a desert uncovered. Venture Publications, Windhoek 2008, ISBN 978-3-941602-06-9 .
- Claire Küpper, Thomas Küpper: Namibia Nature Reserves Travel Guide. Iwanowski travel book publisher, Dormagen 2000, ISBN 3-923975-60-0 .
Web links
- Official site for Namibian national parks
- Photos from the diamond restricted area
- Government Gazette 2008 (PDF; 1.4 MB)
- Jana Moser: Mapping the Namib Desert II: restricted area map 1913 . (PDF; 647 kB) scientific treatise on the map of the restricted area
- Official site of the marine reserve
Individual evidence
- ^ Abandoned Sites in Southern Africa.
- ↑ Proclamation of the marine reserve
- ↑ G. Scheuring: The mineralogical composition of the German-Southwest African diamond sands . In: Contributions to the geological research of the German protected areas . Booklet 8, (Geological Central Agency for German Protected Areas) Berlin 1914, p. 6
- ↑ Absalom Shigwedha: Scoping the Restricted Area . The Namibian . March 6, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
Nature reserves and wildlife parks :
Bwabwata |
Daan-Viljoen |
Etosha |
Gross Barmen |
Hardap |
Khaudum |
Cape of Cross |
Kunene * |
Nkasa Rupara (Mamili) |
Mangetti |
Mudumu
Namib-Skeleton Coast
( Tsau ǁKhaeb (restricted area) |
Namib-Naukluft |
Dorob ( West Coast ) |
Skeleton Coast ) |
Naute |
Popa Falls |
Southwest |
From Bach |
Waterberg
Marine Protected Areas : Meob-Chamais
Protected landscape areas : Mudumu | Gross Waterberg | Great Sossusvlei - Namib | Great Fish River Canyon | Windhoek - Green Belt
Cross-border parks : (Namibian contribution) ǀAi-ǀAis Richtersveld ( ǀAi-ǀAis | Hunsberge ) | Iona Skeleton Coast ( Namib Skeleton Coast ) | Kavango-Zambezi ( Bwabwata | Mamili (Nkasa Rupara) | Mudumu )
* Planned nature reserves