Popa Falls in Caprivi, Namibia

Despite being the driest country in southern Africa, Namibia’s biodiversity is very interesting. The dry environment means that many species are adapted to dry conditions which creates interesting species and sub-species, according to Phoebe Barnard, National Co-ordinator of the Namibian National Biodiversity Programme.

Namibia is also special because of the many different habitats in the country. It ranges from the tropical swamps of the Caprivi region in the north-east, to the thorn savannahs and rocky hills of the interior, to the dramatic Namib desert along the west coast. These varied and scenic natural environments are an important national asset as they not only support and ensure the existence of the people and wildlife, but they act as draw cards to tourists who visit Namibia, contributing money to communities and the country in general.

Since the establishment of the first game reserves in Namibia in 1907 and the systematic collection of museum species in the mid-1800s, Namibia has been following progressive programmes in biodiversity, according to Mike Griffin of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and Phoebe Barnard, who co-authored an article entitled: What is This Thing Called Biodiversity?

Namibia’s Programme

In 1992, Namibia’s President Sam Nujoma along with 160 other heads of state attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and signed the Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention, also known as the Biodiversity Treaty, is comprised of 41 articles. The guiding principles of these articles is that each country has the right to exploit its own resources, and that activities within one country should not damage the environment of another. The treaty places strong emphasis on promoting the sustainable use of biodiversity and assuring the equitable distribution of benefits.

Namibia's National Biodiversity Programme was set up in September 1994 to coordinate, support, guide and stimulate national activities relating to biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of biological resources. It is coordinated from within the Directorate of Environmental Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, but works closely with a number of institutional and individual partners. Its coordination office is comparable to the National Biodiversity Unit (NBU) of other countries.

Because of its solid traditions and history of scientific enquiry, Namibia is in a relatively strong position in terms of biodiversity information management. However, much of that information was poorly accessible: little was computerized, and even less analyzed for policy-makers. It has thus been a priority of the National Biodiversity Programme to strengthen, computerize and make the country's data available for environmental planning and management purposes.

Biodiversity may be a new term but it is an old concept. We depend on it for virtually everything we do. People living in rural areas depend directly on biodiversity for their survival through farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, tourism, water supply, trade and education. Rural people need diverse ecosystems to exist and farm in a sustainable manner.

Genetic variety is also crucial to food security in Namibia. Some plants have evolved with genes that are resistant to drought, frost, salinity or disease, thus ensuring their long-term survival in an arid country.

Scientists have come to realize that the more genetic variation at a species’ disposal, the more evolutionary options it has and the more likely its chances of surviving major events.

National Museum of Namibia

One of the partners in the National Biodiversity Programme is the National Museum of Namibia that runs the National Biodiversity Inventory Programme.

The National Museum of Namibia is the custodian of natural history collections consisting of some 1 - 1.5 million specimens, most of which are insects. The National Biodiversity Inventory Programme, a Millennium Project of the National Museum of Namibia, is intended to set an unprecedented and innovative example of how essential biodiversity information associated with these huge collections can be rapidly computerized through community-based education initiatives.

The National Museum of Namibia was one of the first African museums to develop a web site, http://www.natmus.cul.na, making its cultural and educational resources available on the World Wide Web in 1997. It is currently the only African museum with searchable online collection databases.

The National Museum's Biodiversity Inventory Programme is intended as a unique community self-help exercise by creating opportunities for Namibian schools to gain computer equipment, skills and Internet access in exchange for community services at the National Museum of Namibia.

‘Burning Mountain’

The Brandberg is a biodiversity site with an extensive database on the Museum’s webpage.

The dominant topographic feature of the Central Namib landscape between Walvisbay and the Skeleton Coast Park is the dome-shaped Brandberg Massif. This granite pluton rises 1900 m above the surrounding desert plains and covers an area of 650 square kilometers. It can be seen from distances up to 100 km away, and has the highest peaks in Namibia.

Brandberg is also known by its Damara name Dâures, which literally means "burning mountain" for the fiery orange appearance of its bare granite slopes.

The Brandberg is best known for its rock art. The rich diversity and quality of the rock art, combined with the high number of sites (62 sites in the Hungarob ravine alone), has resulted in continued archaeological research interest. Most of the paintings are situated in the higher parts of the catchment, where they are concentrated near waterholes and seepages. The Brandberg is being promoted as a possible World Heritage Site for its rich cultural heritage, though its unique environment, and the possible scientific importance of its plant and animal life, has not received much attention.

The Brandberg massif is a relatively young feature of post-Karoo age, and consists of a single intrusive granite mass surrounded by older country rock of the Damara Orogen. By virtue of its size, the mountain seems to create a local low pressure cell that draws moisture-laden air into the desert. As a result, the higher parts of the mountain receive more rain than the surrounding desert; and a clear altitudinal variation in plant cover is apparent.

Rainfall is usually trapped in surface pools, or penetrates the sheet joints of the granite to seep into tiny fissures hidden among the rocks. Such springs, often no larger than a hand basin, may last several years without replenishment by rain. Where dykes interrupt the course of tributary streams larger quantities of water accumulate, safe from evaporation just beneath the sand. These localities often support dense vegetation cover attracting birds or other animals to live in their vicinity.

The top of the mountain is often covered in cloud in summer, and when it rains the northern and eastern slopes of the summit seem to benefit most. The extreme dryness of the area immediately below the western slopes, indicated by the almost complete absence of vegetation when compared to the thorn scrub savannah to the east of the mountain, suggests that it lies within a rain shadow. That suggests that moist air is drawn from the east. Summer temperatures of around 40°C are usual on the plains, but it is normally quite cool near the summit and strong winds may blow for several days at a time.

The plains of the Central Namib, which surrounds the Brandberg massif, receive an average rainfall of only 100 mm per annum in small localised showers. The vegetation around the mountain closely reflects these conditions, and because several successive years may pass before rain falls in the same area, the grasses are mainly annuals and ephemeral perennials with a patchy, shifting distribution. This is, however, in marked contrast to the mountain's vegetation. The upper Brandberg is unique in southern Africa in being a high altitude Savannah outlier, with many perennial grasses, as well as a rich diversity of tree and shrub species that do not occur on the surrounding gravel plains. However, due to the inaccessibility and sheer size of the Brandberg, a detailed floral survey is not yet available.

The mountain oases are effectively out of reach to the antelope and larger mammals of the plains, mainly because of the steep gradient of the entire perimeter. The main larger mammals of the upper Brandberg comprise of klipspringer antelope, rock hyrax, rock hares, dassie-rats, and their main predator, leopards. No definite information is available on the birds of the upper Brandberg. The present knowledge of the avifauna is restricted to records from the lower slopes and surrounding gravel plains and, as could be expected, comprises of a mixture of desert and escarpment species. The rest of the fauna is almost completely unknown, apart from isolated records as a result of incidental collecting, e.g. the endemic Brandberg gecko, Pachydactylus gaiasensis.

Namibian biologists have systematically inventorized the country's biological diversity over the past couple of decades. Due to the size of the territory (823,144 km²), a limited number of trained people, and a poorly studied environment at the beginning of the programme, inventorization is far from complete. Inventorization requires repeat visits and extensive deployment of traps in a study area to establish a comprehensive information base. The inaccessibility of the upper Brandberg, and thus the cost and complexity of logistical support, has delayed a detailed investigation of the mountain, even though the Brandberg is expected to be a center for endemism in western Namibia.

Maggi Barnard  was born and bred in Windhoek, Namibia and studied journalism in South Africa. After working two years for a daily newspaper in Windhoek, she switched to corporate journalism for seven years. She later returned to newspaper journalism in 2000 as The Namibian’s representative at the coast. You can reach her at: maggi672002@yahoo.co.uk.