Pristine wilderness area to become national park

CABINET has given its approval for the famous exclusive diamond area, the Sperrgebiet, to be proclaimed a National Park.

The proclamation was approved by Cabinet at its 8th ordinary meeting on April. 6. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to consult with other stakeholders about a name for the new national park and to submit proposals to Cabinet for approval at a later date.In 1994, Government and De Beers Centenary reached an agreement that 63 per cent of the Sperrgebiet should be given back to the Namibian Government, to be controlled by the Namibian Police.The proclamation of the Sperrgebiet as an exclusive mining reserve dates back to German colonial times.The area used to encompass more than two million hectares of mostly desert In 2002, a study done by Walmsley Environmental Consultants on the land-use plan for the Sperrgebiet, jointly commissioned by the Ministries of Tourism, Mines and Lands, found that the area was suited to becoming a national park.The main objective of land-use plan, according to the Information Ministry, was to seek ways of developing and managing the area in an integrated way for the long-term benefit of current and future generations.The Sperrgebiet, according to Government, is one of the world’s 25 top, globally recognised “biodiversity hot spots which supports very unusual fauna and flora, much of which occurs only in the Sperrgebiet and nowhere else in the world”.”Namibia, therefore, has an obligation to protect this area as part of its commitments under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, to which Namibia is a party,” said Government.It is believed that bringing tourism into the Sperrgebiet will stimulate the economy in the South as well as complement and diversify existing tourist attractions like the Ai-Ais/Richterveld Transfrontier Park.The report said the Sperrgebiet fitted the definition of a wilderness “as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain”.But the discovery of diamonds in the area meant that general public access was barred.As a result, much of the Sperrgebiet today is pristine wilderness.The Sperrgebiet – which means forbidden area – covers some 26 00sq km in south-western Namibia, stretching from Lüderitz to the Orange River.The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to consult with other stakeholders about a name for the new national park and to submit proposals to Cabinet for approval at a later date.In 1994, Government and De Beers Centenary reached an agreement that 63 per cent of the Sperrgebiet should be given back to the Namibian Government, to be controlled by the Namibian Police.The proclamation of the Sperrgebiet as an exclusive mining reserve dates back to German colonial times.The area used to encompass more than two million hectares of mostly desert In 2002, a study done by Walmsley Environmental Consultants on the land-use plan for the Sperrgebiet, jointly commissioned by the Ministries of Tourism, Mines and Lands, found that the area was suited to becoming a national park.The main objective of land-use plan, according to the Information Ministry, was to seek ways of developing and managing the area in an integrated way for the long-term benefit of current and future generations.The Sperrgebiet, according to Government, is one of the world’s 25 top, globally recognised “biodiversity hot spots which supports very unusual fauna and flora, much of which occurs only in the Sperrgebiet and nowhere else in the world”.”Namibia, therefore, has an obligation to protect this area as part of its commitments under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, to which Namibia is a party,” said Government.It is believed that bringing tourism into the Sperrgebiet will stimulate the economy in the South as well as complement and diversify existing tourist attractions like the Ai-Ais/Richterveld Transfrontier Park.The report said the Sperrgebiet fitted the definition of a wilderness “as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain”.But the discovery of diamonds in the area meant that general public access was barred.As a result, much of the Sperrgebiet today is pristine wilderness.The Sperrgebiet – which means forbidden area – covers some 26 00sq km in south-western Namibia, stretching from Lüderitz to the Orange River.