Nature doesn’t recognise our borders. Animals need to roam. Plant communities grow according to natural patterns. Namibia’s conservation efforts recognise this – the country’s nature parks are the state-protected heartlands of larger ecosystems. A variety of landscape-level initiatives promote conservation collaboration far beyond these parks. What goes on around the parks is vital to the life in them, especially if the parks are small or unfenced.

Namibia is divided into three main land tenure types: state parks cover close to 17 per cent of the land; communal areas (state land reserved for livelihood use by local communities) makes up around 37 per cent, freehold land comprises about 43 per cent. The remaining three per cent consist of state land for other uses, and municipal areas.