News

Starting in September, countless visitors from the northern hemisphere arrive at the Namibian coast each year. Some of them cover more than 10,000 kilometres to swop freezing temperatures in the north for the southern summer. They are terns and other seabirds and waders.

Kati places both his hands onto the hard-stretched skin of the bongo drum. Energetically, the knuckly part of his palm touches the edge of the drum, effortlessly his fingers follow, bouncing off the head. In alternation of thumb and fingertips he makes a gentle sound, changing to a faster tempo, creating a rhythmic liveliness. His enthusiasm is evident. Kati is five years old and barely taller than his instrument.

It’s the holiday season! Holidaymakers are flocking to the coast in droves. They want to enjoy the beach and nature in general by driving into the Namib Desert and thus into our national parks. Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures. For many years this well-meant piece of advice was intended to promote environmental protection. Nowadays it needs to be rephrased to get the message across more clearly. 

Caged birds, such as budgerigars, are often given cuttlebone for grooming their beaks. Birds in the wild have plenty of opportunities to groom their beaks, but occasionally there are some that do not succeed.  When nature goes haywire, the upper or lower beak – or even the entire beak – may become crooked and too long. 

It was four days before Christmas - the “dry season” for newspapers – and media houses had a hard time finding stories. A sudden invitation by the Police command in Windhoek to a press conference about a ‘strange object’ that had landed in northern Namibia turned matters around instantly.

The Namibian Government has banned plastic bags in national parks and nature reserves as from 22 November 2018. Visitors and their vehicles will be searched at park entrances. A spot fine of N$500 (about 32 Euros) must be paid, when found with forbidden plastic bags inside a park by officials. Alternatively, a prison term of up to six months could be ordered or both a fine and imprisonment.

Over large parts of Namibia the sky has a greyish white tinge during August and September. From a plane you will definitely notice the layer of smog which hovers up to 12000 feet (3657 metres) above sea level, or about 2000 metres above the ground. Countless bushfires, some of them huge, are the reason for the greyish white sky and for air pollution at levels high above the ground – especially in north-eastern Namibia and in neighbouring Angola, Zambia and Botswana.

Fish wardens of the Sikunga Conservancy pulled an illegal net containing 341 fish from a tributary of the Zambezi in September this year (2018). The tributary, known as the Kalimbeza Channel, is a fish sanctuary on the Namibian side of the river. The fish wardens wage a relentless battle against illegal fishing activities.