Namibia has one of the lowest population densities on the planet. There are only seven countries out of 242 in the world ranked lower but are either islands or complete desert. With only 3 people per square kilometre the population of 2 million people over a surface area of 825,118 km2 makes this fascinating country a particularly rich wilderness region.
The Namib desert has some of the highest sand dunes in the world and Namibia’s 9 National Parks conserve an enormous variety of wildlife.
These include:
- Ai-Ais / Richtersveld Transfrontier Park (see also Fish River Canyon and Ai-Ais Hot Springs)
- Bwabwata National Park
- Etosha National Park
- Kaudom National Park
- Mamili National Park
- Mudumu National Park
- Namib-Naukluft National Park
- Skeleton Coast National Park
- Waterberg National Park
Nature Reserves:
- Kaokoland Nature Reserve
- Khaudom Game Reserve
- Mamili Game Reserve
- Mudumugame Game Reserve
Namibia has 115 species of fish (5 endemics). There are about 50 species of frogs (6 endemics) but neither caecilians nor salamanders. Namibia is home to 250 species of reptiles with 59 endemics.
There were 1331 recorded species of arachnids with 164 endemics but there are potentially 5650 species.
Records show 6331 species of insects (1541 of them are endemics) but there are expected to be 35,000 species of insects.
There are an impressive 200 species of terrestrial mammals (14 of them endemic) and 40 species of marine mammals.
Namibia has 644 bird species of which 14 are endemic and no less than 4334 recorded species of plants of which a staggering 683 species are endemic.
Tourism is a major contributor to Namibia’s GDP (14,5%) creating 18,2% of all employment servicing over one million tourists per annum.
