Massive desert reserve coming

The Iona-Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Park will soon become a reality with the final agreement to formalise the area, to be signed between Angola and Namibia within a few months.

The transfrontier conservation area has been planned since 2003.

According to environment minister Pohamba Shifeta the park has has been approved by the Angolan and Namibian governments, as well as responsible line ministries.

He said to formalise the establishment of the park, an agreement will be signed between the two countries in Luanda, Angola before the end of June 2018.

The Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area is one of seven large trans-boundary conservation areas in southern Africa. It connects the Namib Desert ecosystem's northern extent in Namibia to Angola's Iona National Park in the south of that country.

Stretching along the desert coast of Angola and Namibia, several national parks, reserves, conservancies and tourism concession areas on both sides of the border will form the Iona-Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area, encompassing a total area of 47 698 square kilometres.

In the far north-western corner of Namibia, the Skeleton Coast Park and Angola's Iona National Park meet at the Kunene River.

In Angola, the Iona National Park is found in the Namibe Province of Angola. It is Angola's oldest and largest national ark, covering 15 150 square kilometres. In Namibia, the Skeleton Coast National Park is located in the north-western part of the country and extends from the mouth of the Ugab River to the Kunene River covering a total area of 16 845 square kilometres.

The project aims to strengthen cross-border management and wildlife law enforcement by co-designing and implementing conservation monitoring technologies with communities in the area.

Shifeta launched the project, 'Co-designing of Conservation Technologies for the Iona-Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area of Angola and Namibia,' and Nust is the lead applicant and coordinator of the project, in partnership with the Angolan Institution Superior de Ciências de Educação da Huíla (ISCED).

Shifeta said a multi-disciplinary team will research and develop technological tools to support government and community conservation in managing and monitoring the northern-Namib Desert ecosystem.

They will use state-of-the-art technology developed in-house, as well as globally, to protect and enhance this unique ecosystem for the two national parks, as well as surrounding communities.

Research currently includes ecosystem services assessment, new wildlife census technology, impacts of fencing and roads on wildlife, the sustainability of trophy hunting, sustainable rangeland management and human-wildlife conflict reduction.

According to him the ISCED has extensive experience and expertise in botany and zoology, especially herpetology, in the area that covers the park.

Increased co-operation between Namibia and Angola in developing the Iona-Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Park could lead to the establishment of a much larger TFCA that spans three countries along the Namib coast. Known as the Three Nations Namib Desert Transfrontier Conservation Area (TNND TFCA), this would include the

/Ai-/Ais-Richtersveld TFCA to the south, the proposed Namib-Skeleton Coast National Park in Namibia and Iona in Angola. The Namib-Skeleton Coast National Park would consist of the current Sperrgebiet National Park, the Namib-Naukluft Park, the proposed Walvis Bay/Swakopmund conservation area. The new transfrontier park will be the eighth-largest protected area in the world, and the sixth-largest terrestrial protected area and largest park in Africa, covering an area of 10.754 million hectares. Further, a new Marine Protected Area borders the proposed Namib-Skeleton Coast National Park, and several private game reserves and communal area conservancies, which would add another 14 million hectares of land and sea managed for some form of conservation.