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n what could otherwise be categorised as a desert country, the north-eastern portions of Namibia near the borders with Angola, Zambia and Botswana are blessed with ample water, lush vegetation and a huge array of animals, large and small. Recognition of the unique value of the area came early. It was designated as a Nature Reserve in 1937, later becoming the Caprivi Nature Park (1963); the Caprivi Game Reserve (1965); and the Caprivi Game Park (1968). To the west, the Mahango Game Reserve was established in 1989. Recognising the value of contiguous wild areas for the health of game animal populations, the Namibian Government consolidated the two, while adding previously undesignated areas along the Kwando River, creating the Bwabwata National Park in 2007.
RAMSAR SITES IN NAMIBIA Namibia currently hosts the following five designated Wetlands of International Importance as prescribed by the Ramsar Convention: • Etosha Pan, Lake Oponono and the Cuvelai drainage system (central northern Namibia) • Sandwich Harbour (Atlantic coast, approximately 55 km south of Walvis Bay) • Walvis Bay Lagoon (Atlantic coast, immediately south of the Municipality of Walvis Bay) • Orange River Mouth (Namibia/South Africa border, on the Atlantic coast) • Bwabwata-Okavango (Lower Okavango River and adjacent marshes/flood plains)
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The area has long been recognised as a critical migration route for African elephants moving from Botswana to Angola and Zambia. African buffalo in the hundreds can at times cause major congestion on roads. Other hoofed mammals found here and nowhere else in Namibia include waterbuck, puku, lechwe, and sitatunga. The new Ramsar site not only includes major portions of the Bwabwata National Park, but also 470 km of the lower Okavango River, which ends its journey in Botswana’s fabled Okavango Delta (itself designated as a Ramsar site by the government of Botswana). The site includes permanent and temporary flooded marshes and flood plains that are home to slaty egrets, grey crowned cranes, wattled cranes, and pygmy geese. It has been listed as an internationally important bird area, with more than 400 species of birds having been recorded there, the highest ever in Namibia. The newly designated Ramsar site encompasses the Kwando and Okavango rivers, flowing from Zambia and Angola through Namibia, to end in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Equally important, the land between the rivers hosts ancient riverbeds (omiramba) that carry water only after heavy rains, and for short distances. This results in many standing pools of water, easily accessible for cattle, small stock, and the plants and animals that abound in the area. These natural watering spots probably influenced human settlement here in ancient times. Currently, about 5,000 people reside within the park boundaries, mostly of the Khwe people, a San ethnic group, and of the Mbukushu people, who probably arrived significantly later. About 150 !Xun people – a large group that gathered here as refugees during the Angolan war and left when the conflict ended – remain here.