Namibia is a clean, safe, relatively modern nation with the lowest population density and second- highest per-capita income in Sub-Sahara Africa.  In the European colonial era, it was known as German Southwest Africa.  During the First World War it was taken over by South Africa, which retained the area as a "protectorate" until a guerilla war and U.N. pressures led to Namibian independence in 1991.  The nation was named for the Namib Desert, the world's oldest desert and surely among the most beautiful.  The primary sources of income are diamond and mineral mining, livestock and game ranching, commercial fishing, and tourism, with a majority of visitors coming from German-speaking countries.  There are small, economically influential groups of citizens with German and Afrikaner ethnic backgrounds,  but Namibia is now governed by its large black majority and has enjoyed a high degree of political stability since independence.  The official language is English, which is widely spoken in the cities and towns.  There are more than a dozen tribal languages reflecting the diverse tribal backgrounds of Namibia's black population.  Because Namibia was controlled by South Africa for seventy years, it has a good infrastructure with excellent roads, a modern international airport at Windhoek, the capital, a reliable electrical power grid, and many other modern features in urban or semi-urban areas.  We have found its people are for the most part extremely friendly and honest.  

As a legacy of Germanic influences, Namibia produces high-quality local beers, imported South African and European wines are widely available, and there are a number of really good European-style restaurants.  The general level of hygiene in the country is higher than anywhere else in Africa.  Another positive factor is that Namibia has a wide range of available tourist facilities but has not suffered from excessive numbers of visitors---the country is virtually unknown to American and Japanese tourists.  Yet, Namibia offers a unique combination of incredible desert scenery, outstanding wildlife encounters, safe, high quality facilities, and friendly people.

Because many Namibians--predominantly white ranchers and native herdsmen--depend on raising domesticated livestock or game species for sale, they have traditionally been hostile toward predatory species (lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas) that threaten cattle, goats, and other valuable species.  The antipathy toward lions, which are by far the most destructive predators, is so strong among tribal pastoralists that one Namibian environmental NGO financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature had been helping their community game guards to kill lions and other predators in return for greater protection of elephants and rhinos against poaching.   Aside from adverse effects on threatened lion numbers in Namibia, predatory species should be converted into an asset through attracting increased eco-tourism to Namibia and through sales of excess lions to public wildlife parks and private game reserves elsewhere in Africa.  Many lions in other African nations are infected by feline aids, canine distemper, or bovine tuberculosis, leaving the geographically isolated Namibian lions as the healthiest sub-population on the continent.  Yet, lions that escape from Etosha National Park, the habitat for the majority of Namibian lions, are routinely killed on sight or poisoned by local tribesmen and ranchers. This is a terrible waste of biologically and economically valuable wildlife.  EcoVitality's conservation partnership with the Afri-Leo Foundation in Namibia will focus on trying to create feasible ways to resolve the conflict between predators and livestock herders or game ranchers.