Namibia Habitat Guide

Namibia is situated in Southern Africa and shares international frontiers with South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe. The country can be divided into four distinct topographical regions – the 2,000m central plateau that traverses from the north to south, from Keetmanshoop to Otjiwarongo is basically hilly and primarily used for ranching. The plateau slopes westwards down to the coast to the long, narrow, arid belt of the Namib Desert. The Namib Desert is full of escarpments and canyons formed by years of wind and water action into the most spectacularly scenic area of natural beauty in all of Namibia. Further below the Namib Desert is the flat coastal plain – an area of shifting sand dunes. East of the plateau, the land slopes gently down to the great sandy stretch of the Kalahari Desert. The eastern lowlands encompass the high rainfall areas of the Okavango and Caprivi regions.

Mt. Brandberg is the highest mountain in Namibia at 2579m. Other important peaks are the Moltkeblick (2480m), Bismarckfelsen (2419m), Gamsberg (2347m) and the Spitzkoppe (1730m). There are five perennial rivers in Namibia forming natural frontiers with the neighbouring countries. These river systems are the Kunene, Okavango, Zambezi, Kwando/Linyanti/Chobe and the Orange River.

Flora & Fauna

Namibia can proudly claim fame to being the very first country in the world to include provisions for the protection, conservation and sustainable utilization of the environment in its Constitution. As a result, 15.5% of the country has been devoted to National Parks where rare and endangered species of animals, birds and plant life are preserved and protected. Namibia has 14 vegetation zones - desert, semi-desert, forest savannahs woodlands, mopane and thorn bush woodlands, dwarf shrub, camel thorn, mixed trees and shrub savannahs. Savannah or grasslands extend over 64% of the country covering parts of the highland plateau and the Kalahari Desert sandveld. Dry woodlands and forests grow in 20% of the land area while approximately 16% comes under desert type arid/semi-arid vegetation.

The Namib Desert is mostly barren except for hardy species of grass and woody scrub and small shrubs.  The surprise element in the Namib is the profusion of lichens that grow prolifically in the central coast and in the succulent and fleshy grass varieties commonly found in the more temperate savannah. Namibia has more than 120 tree species and more than 200 endemic plant species including the highly unusual African giants baobabs that grow in the grassy steppes and woodlands in northern Namibia, from the Kunene River to the Zambezi River. The vegetation around the rivers changes from woodland to riverine forests. The riverbanks may have as diverse specimens as thorn trees, red or wild seringa, large false mopane, kiaat, Rhodesian teak, sausage tree and clusters of wild date palms, reed and papyrus banks along the channels.

Endemic to the Namib and one of the most rare plants in the world is the Welwitschia, a dwarf tree which lives for 2000 years or longer and in its lifetime produces a single pair of leaves. Another tree unusual in appearance is the 7m high African moringa which looks more like an upside down tree with its gnarled, tangled bare branches closely resembling a root system sticking up into the tree. A really rare stand of moringas is famous as the Haunted Forest – it can be seen in the Etosha National Park.

Namibia has a rich and varied wildlife with over 140 mammal species and 620 bird species native to the country. The eland is the biggest and the Damara dik- dik, the smallest of over 20 species of antelopes alone that are found here.  Namibia has amongst the largest numbers of elephants, giraffe, oryx, hyena, ostrich and antelopes apart from the endangered species of black rhinos, cheetahs, Hartmann's mountain zebra, blackfaced impala, wild dog, lion, kudu, waterbuck and oribi. More than 887 bird species are on record as endemic to the region of Southern Africa – out of these, 620 are found in Namibia. The Walvis Bay and Sandwich Harbour lagoons are two very significant wetland areas in Africa. The wetlands have a steady and rich food supply that attracts nearly 180,000 migratory birds. Namibia has other water bodies such as the bays around Luderitz, the salt pans in Swakopmund and Etosha, the delta of the Orange River and the Cape Cross lagoons.