322 | The Namib Sand Sea

CONSERVATION AND TOURISM 

Did you know?

- That the Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world.

- That its landscape is blanketed in fog many mornings of the year.

- That it's rivers often end in dry sands and dunes.

- That it's linear oases shelter animals as well as people.

- That shifting sand dunes cover 84% of the Namib Sand Sea.

- That the inscribed Namib Sand Sea covers an area of 30,777 square kilometer with an additional 899,500 hectares buffer zone

- That there are 16 types of dunes in the Namib Sand Sea.

- That the Namib Sand Sea became the 962nd UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2013

- That the Namib Sand Sea actually consists of two deserts, one ancient (its consolidated dunes ageing 21 million years) and one modern (its dunes being active since 5 million years).

- That it is Namibia's first natural World Heritage Site (Twyfelfontein being a cultural World Heritage Site).

- That it is the desert with the highest biodiversity (305 species of life, 54% being endemic) of all hyper-arid areas in the world.

Striving to protect and support these sensitive forms of life, especially at Sossusvlei, a major tourist hotspot, where visitors unconsciously destroy a lot of potential food, such as insects that serve as a source of moisture supply, by hiking. 

BirdsConTour in cooperation with Pack Safari and Chamäleon Reisen gives back in return through offering water for desert dwelling birds. Each tour guide visiting Sossusvlei offers water for birds in a mobile water trough.