Caprivi Game Park is a protected area in north eastern Namibia that is now called Bwabwata National Park. It was proclaimed as the Caprivi Game Reserve in 1966 and upgraded to the Caprivi Game Park in 1968. [1] It was never managed as a game park as the area was a restricted security zone during Namibia's liberation struggle. The South African Police and later the South African Defence Force occupied the area until the implementation of U.N. Resolution 435 in April 1989. The then Department of Nature Conservation appointed the first nature conservation officer and other staff and started work in the area. [2] Many of the area's original Khwe San inhabitants were conscripted into the army and lived on military bases such as Omega. At independence, approximately 5,000 people were living in the Caprivi Game Park. Caprivi Game Park, Mahango Game Reserve and an area known as the Kwando Triangle were incorporated into the Bwabwata National Park, which was proclaimed in 2007. [3]
Since 2005, the park is considered a Lion Conservation Unit together with Khaudum National Park. [4]
The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in northern Tanzania that stretches over 14,763 km2 (5,700 sq mi). It is located in eastern Mara Region and northeastern Simiyu Region and contains over 1,500,000 hectares of virgin savanna. The park was established in 1940.
Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. It was designated as Wildschutzgebiet in 1958, and was awarded the status of national park in 1967, by an act of parliament of the Republic of South Africa. It spans an area of 22,270 km2 (8,600 sq mi) and was named after the large Etosha pan which is almost entirely within the park. With an area of 4,760 km2 (1,840 sq mi), the Etosha pan covers 23% of the total area of the national park. The area is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened and endangered species such as the black rhinoceros. Sixty-one black rhinoceros were killed during poaching in Namibia during 2022, 46 of which were killed in Etosha.
The Zambezi Region is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. It is located in the north-eastern part of the country. It is largely concurrent with the major Zambezi River after which it was named. The region has eight constituencies and its capital is the town of Katima Mulilo. The self-governed village of Bukalo is also situated in this region. The Zambezi Region had a population of 90,596 in 2011. As of 2020, it had 47,884 registered voters. At the time of the 2023 census, 142,373 people lived in the region.
The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is bordered by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a single point at the eastern tip of the Strip, which also comes within 150 m (490 ft) of Zimbabwe thus nearly forming a quadripoint.
The Cuando River is a river in south-central Africa flowing through Angola and Namibia's Caprivi Strip and into the Linyanti Swamp on the northern border of Botswana. Below the swamp, the river is called the Linyanti River and, farther east, the Chobe River, before it flows into the Zambezi River.
Khaudum National Park is an isolated Nature Reserve situated in the Kalahari Desert to the west of the Caprivi Strip in the northeast of Namibia. It is a very remote and inaccessible reserve, but is home to some magnificent animals, such as the lion and hyena. The park has a campsite for visitors.
Sioma Ngwezi National Park is a 5,000-square-kilometre park in the south west corner of Zambia. It is undeveloped and rarely visited, lacking roads and being off the usual tourist tracks, but this may change in the future.
South African National Parks (SANParks) is the body responsible for managing South Africa's national parks. SANParks was formed in 1926, and currently manages 19 parks consisting of 3,751,113 hectares (37,511.13 km2), over 3% of the total area of South Africa.
Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is the second-largest nature and landscape conservation area in the world, spanning the international borders of five countries in Southern Africa. It includes a major part of the Upper Zambezi River and Okavango basins and Delta, the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, the southeastern part of Angola, southwestern Zambia, the northern wildlands of Botswana and western Zimbabwe. The centre of this area is at the confluence of the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers where the borders of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet. It incorporates a number of notable national parks and nature sites, including Chobe National Park, Hwange National Park, and the Victoria Falls. The region is home to a population of approximately 250,000 animals, including the largest population of African Elephants in the world.
The Itombwe Nature Reserve is a protected area in the Itombwe Mountains of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The reserve covers 6,009.10 square kilometres (2,320.13 sq mi). It is part of a Lion Conservation Unit. The reserve is home to the critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla.
Bwabwata National Park is a protected area in northeastern Namibia that was established in 2007 and covers 6,274 km2 (2,422 sq mi). It was created by merging Namibia's Caprivi Game Park and Mahango Game Park. It is situated in the Zambezi and Kavango East regions, extending along the Caprivi Strip. It is bounded by the Okavango River to the west and the Kwando River to the east. Angola lies to the north and Botswana to the south.
The Mayuni Conservancy is a conservation area in Linyanti Constituency, in Namibia's northeastern Caprivi Region, along the eastern bank of the Cuando River.
Mudumu is a National Park in Caprivi Region of north-eastern Namibia. Established in 1990, the park covers an area of 737 square kilometres (285 sq mi). The Kwando River forms the western border with Botswana. Various communal area conservancies and community forests surround Mudumu National Park.
Nkasa Rupara National Park, also Nkasa Lupala National Park, formerly Mamili National Park, is a national park in Namibia. It is centered on the Nkasa and Rupara islands on the Kwando/Linyanti River in the south-western corner of East Caprivi. Botswana lies to the west, south and east, and Sangwali village to the north. It is Namibia's largest formally protected wetland area. It is one of Namibia’s protected areas that benefits local communities surrounding parks. The unfenced park forms a trans-boundary link for wildlife migration between Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. Nkasa Rupara is part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.
NamParks or the Namibian National Parks Programme is a programme of the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). It was established in 2006 and is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW. It works in Bwabwata, Khaudum, Mudumu and Nkasa Rupara national parks in north eastern Namibia. The parks are part of a larger conservation area, the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. They contain biodiversity and habitat that are not found elsewhere in Namibia. They are also important for tourism. Partners believe that investment in the north eastern parks contributes to the ecological and economic development of the KAZA TFCA.
The protected areas of Namibia include its national parks and reserves. With the 2010 declaration of Dorob National Park, Namibia became the first and only country to have its entire coastline protected through a national parks network. Protected areas are subdivided into game reserves and/or nature reserves, such as special protected area, wilderness areas, natural areas, and development areas. There are also recreation reserves. Facilities in the national parks are operated by Namibia Wildlife Resorts. Over 19% of Namibia is protected, an area of some 130,000 square kilometres. However, the Ministry of Environment & Tourism auctions limited hunting rights within its protected areas. The Namibia Nature Foundation, an NGO, was established in 1987 to raise and administer funds for the conservation of wildlife and protected area management. Communal Wildlife Conservancies in Namibia help promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.
The Southeast African cheetah is the nominate cheetah subspecies native to East and Southern Africa. The Southern African cheetah lives mainly in the lowland areas and deserts of the Kalahari, the savannahs of Okavango Delta, and the grasslands of the Transvaal region in South Africa. In Namibia, cheetahs are mostly found in farmlands. In India, four cheetahs of the subspecies are living in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh after having been introduced there.
The Hardap Recreation Resort is a National Park located in southern Namibia. It was proclaimed in 1968 and measures 252 square kilometres (97 sq mi). Hardap is situated in Hardap Region, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) south of Windhoek and about 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Mariental. It surrounds the Hardap Dam, Namibia's largest dam, which lies on the Fish River. There is a game park on the southern side of the dam.
17°56′34″S22°30′55″E / 17.9427°S 22.5152°E