Country

Namibia: 12 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Aridity organizes Namibia's twelve ecoregions into a clear west-to-east gradient. The coastal strip is the Namib Desert and Kaokoveld desert, both in the Half Protected tier; inland come the Namibian savanna woodlands, Gariep Karoo, and the broad Kalahari xeric savanna, then true savanna woodland in the northeast, where the Angolan and Zambezian mopane woodlands, Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands, and Kalahari Acacia woodlands take over. The Etosha Pan halophytics and Zambezian flooded grasslands add seasonally wet ground in an otherwise dry country, and the Namaqualand-Richtersveld steppe reaches the far south. Plants here must be built for drought: succulents, hardy shrubs, and deep-rooted trees define the palette, with anything thirstier confined to the wetter Caprivi-side woodlands and managed irrigation.