In 1990, a new country was born in southern Africa. Its name comes from a local word, Namib: land where there is nothing.

But today, Namibia is home to one of the greatest wildlife recovery stories the continent has ever known.

Namibia revolutionized wildlife management. Conservation was written into the constitution.

And rural communities joined their lands to form conservancies and manage their wildlife for the benefit of the people. Almost half of the nation is now under conservation management.

Approximately 4.350 species and subspecies of plants (trees, shrubs, grasses etc.), of which 687 species or 17% are endemic; 644 bird species of which over 90 are endemic to Southern Africa and 13 to Namibia.

217 mammal species are found in Namibia, 26 of which are endemic, including unique desert-dwelling rhino and elephants the World’s largest population of cheetah.

About 35% of the roughly 100 000 known Southern African insect species occurs in Namibia.

24% of the insect species are endemic, 11% of spiders, 47% of scorpions and 5% of solifuge species and of 256 species of reptiles, 28% are endemic.

This means that the conservation of biodiversity in Namibia does not only have a national but also a global significance.