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DateLine Sunday, 13 May 2007

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Namibian national park is 100 years old

The Etosha National Park, Namibia, once the world's largest game reserve and home to 114 different mammal species, celebrated its centenary as the jewel in Namibia's crown.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock each year to Etosha in the north of the mainly desert nation of around two million people, making it a mainstay of the economy for a country which gained its independence only 17 years ago.

Apart from elephants, rhinos and big cats such as lion and cheetah, it is also home to 340 species of birds - including migratory pink flamingos - who find a breeding haven in the massive mineral pan which gives the park its name.

Etosha, literally "the great void", refers to the shallow depression of some 5,000 square kilometres covering around a quarter of the park which was once a lake but now only fills up with water during a good rainy season.

Each year, some 300,000 tourists, mainly from Europe and the US, visit the park, nearly half of Namibia's annual tourism flow of 700,000.

"Etosha is the jewel in our tourism crown," said Tobie Aupindi, Managing Director of Namibia Wildlife Resorts.

One of Africa's oldest game parks, Etosha was once a massive 93,240 square kilometres until South Africa's apartheid regime trimmed it to 22,270 square kilometres half the size of Switzerland in the 1970s to create homelands for different ethnic groups.

Namibia finally gained independence in 1990, but a lack of funds in the national budget has made the duties of nature conservation officers more difficult and the three tourism resorts of Okaukuejo, Halali and Namutoni within Etosha are in dire need of modernisation.

AFP

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