Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR)

The Kalahari has two distinct protected areas, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which occupies much of the country in the center of Botswana, including the Khutse Game Reserve, and further south of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the southwest of the country.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is the result of a merger with the South African Gemsbok National Park. Gemsbok National Park was the first national park in Botswana when it was founded in 1937. Together with the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park on the South African side, the Park was formed to protect the land and the wild animals living there from cattle and overgrazing. After several extensions, the two parks were merged in 1999 to form the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, which covers almost 38,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest parks in the world.

It is a land of inestimable ecological value, well preserved due to its remote location. Although there is almost no surface water in the Kalahari, it is characterised by a great diversity of flora and fauna. Animals and plants live in a delicate balance. Every plant, every animal, reptile and insect is part of the complex life structure of the fragile nature of the Kalahari.

The land is the habitat of an amazing biodiversity. Flocks of springbok and oryx antelope, eland and red hartebeest populate the vast grassy plains. The animals follow the sparse rains and grass. Many of the Kalahari's animals quench their thirst with the dew that forms on the plants overnight, digging up roots or eating cucumbers and melons. The antelopes are food for the predators like lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs.

In addition, giraffes, ostriches, monkeys, spoonbills, porcupines, honey badgers, jackals and other species live in the Game Reserve. As in other desert-like habitats, there are also snakes and reptiles and many species of birds.

The average annual rainfall of 60 to about 170 mm, with about 400 species, provides a remarkable variety of plants, including numerous trees, shrubs and large grassy areas.

The San of the Kalahari are the last remaining hunter-gatherers whose lifestyles are similar to those of Stone Age humans. They were called the Khoi word "San" because the original name "Bushmen" was considered derogative. Nonetheless, this term was also considered pejorative because it was understood as meaning "wild people who live in the bush" and thus incapable of any other than a primitive life. In the Ghanzi region, these people are called "Ncoakhoe, which means" the red people ". The San were the first inhabitants of southern Africa. The term San goes back to the name of the Nama in the Cape region of South Africa. San and Khoi Khoi, nomadic shepherds, are often grouped together as Khoisan.

But by the mid-1980s, the Botswana government has put pressure on the San to force them out of the Game Reserve. At that time there were several San settlements in the national park, such as Xade, Xaka, Molapo and Metseamononong. Allegedly, the authorities feared for the game population, also the supply of the San communities is too complex and they want to give the San the same educational and development opportunities as the rest of Batswana. However, critics suspect that these are only advanced arguments to facilitate the mining of diamond deposits in the reserve.

A ruling by the Botswana Supreme Court in December 2006 declared illegal the relocation of the San from the Kalahari Nature Reserve and granted them the right to return to their old homeland and traditional lifestyles.

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