Tsau ǁKhaeb (Restricted Area) National Park

Tsau ǁKhaeb (Restricted Area) National Park IUCN Category II - National Park
Over the central part of the restricted area, west of the Tsausberge
location	Southwest Namibia
surface	26,000 km²
WDPA ID	303691
Geographical location	26 ° 41 ′  S , 15 ° 5 ′  E Coordinates: 26 ° 40 ′ 31 ″  S , 15 ° 5 ′ 25 ″  E
Setup date	2008
administration	Ministry of Environment and Tourism

The Tsau ǁKhaeb ( prohibited area) National Park ( English Tsau ǁKhaeb (prohibited area) National Park ) denotes a national park and area on the Namibian west coast of Africa .

Names

Between 2008 and November 2012 the national park was known as a restricted area national park . Before that it was a restricted area or Diamond Area 1 , formerly Diamond Area A , a restricted area for diamond mining.

geography

The area surrounds the port city of Lüderitz and extends from the Oranje to the southern border of the Namib-Naukluft National Park . The area covers a total area of ​​about 26,000 km². 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 villages of Oranjemund and Rosh Pinah in the south. In the middle of the restricted area is the Kaukausib spring, which carries water all year round. The restricted area includes the mountains Aurus , Heioab , Höchst and the Tsausberge . The Rote Kamm , a meteorite crater, is also located in the restricted area .

Climate and flora

At the foot of the Tsausberge there is water after rare rainfall (October 2018)

The average annual rainfall in this part of the Namib is only a few millimeters. The bushes that occur in the restricted area only survive thanks to the fog that forms over the cold Atlantic from time to time and drifts far inland during the day. The individual camel thorn trees draw their water from deep underground water reservoirs.

history

Aerial view of the Tsausberge in the restricted area

The Rote Kamm , an impact crater in the south of the restricted area

In the restricted diamond area was Zacharias Lewala the assistant August Stauch , in April 1908 at the maintenance of Luderitz railway diamonds . Several German diamond companies were founded, which parceled out the find area and directed it to an orderly diamond mining. During this time, settlements such as Kolmanskuppe or Elisabethbucht emerged , which are now ghost towns . In 1920 the diamond stores were considered exhausted and they were sold to Ernst Oppenheimer , the founder of the company Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa . This company, which was later taken over by the De Beers Group, perfected diamond extraction 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 by Bernhard Dernburg in 1908 . 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 change and destruction of the desert landscape. At the same time, however, unique biotopes of great scientific value have been preserved in the restricted area .

tourism

Information sign (1947) - in three languages ​​with German

Restricted area sign (2018) - in three languages ​​without German

After diamond mining shifted increasingly to the Atlantic , the severe access restrictions were partially 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. The mouth of the Orange River is an internationally recognized Ramsar area . Nowadays there are quite a few ghost towns in the national park area.

literature

• John Pallet et al .: The Restricted Area: Namibia's Least Known Wilderness. DRFN, Windhoek 1995, ISBN 99916-709-3-9 .
• Malcolm Bertoni: restricted area. Self-published, Hobart 2012, ISBN 978-0-646-57474-5 .
• Namibia Nature Foundation (Ed.): The Sperrgebiet Land Use Plan . Windhoek 2010, nnf.org.na (PDF; 1.2 MB)
• Paula Hardy, Matthew Firestone: Namibia & Botswana. Mair Dumont DE, 2007, ISBN 3-8297-1584-6 , p. 74 ( Google Books )
• Gino Noli: Desert diamonds. Kolmanskop Tour Company, Lüderitz 2007, ISBN 978-0-620-39750-6 .
• Elke Loßkarn, Dieter Loßkarn: Namibia. DuMont Reiseverlag, 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4065-6 , p. 89
• P. Sprigade, Heinrich Lotz : Map of the restricted area in German South West Africa. , 10 sheets, 1: 100 000. (Geogr. Verlaghandlung v. Dietrich Reimer) Berlin 1913, DNB 560935382 , OCLC 425218262 , OCLC 320057949 .

Web links

Commons : Restricted Area  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature on Tsau-ǁKhaeb (restricted area) National Park in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries )
• Restricted Area National Park Visitor's Information Materials; Christian Goltz
• Official Park Brochure ( Memento of July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• Diamond restricted area on afrika-reisefuehrer.de
• Photos from the diamond restricted area
• Namibia Declares Sperrgebiet As National Park CEPF NEWS June 2004
• Government Gazette 2008 (PDF; 1.35 MB)
• scientific treatise on the map of the restricted area; Jana Moser: Mapping the Namib Desert II: Restricted Area Map 1913 (PDF; 647 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Restricted area now called Tsau // Khaeb. The Namibian, November 6, 2012, accessed August 31, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Restricted area . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved March 26, 2012.
3. ↑ 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, Berlin (Geological Central Agency for German Protected Areas) 1914, p. 6
4. ↑ Absalom Shigwedha: Scoping the Restricted Area . The Namibian . March 6, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2008.
5. ↑ ^{a b} The mist desert Namib
6. ↑ Precipitation statistics in neighboring Lüderitz
7. ↑ Camel thorn trees have roots that extend to a depth of 60 m.
8. ↑ www.kolmanskop.de: The restricted diamond area