Unesco has finally declared Botswana’s Okavango Delta a World Heritage Site, protecting Africa’s biggest wetland system for future generations.
Applause please, because:
- The area is an epic wilderness that spans 16,000 km². That’s nearly 7 times the size of the Australian Capital Territory. Big? Yep. Stunning, too.
- It’s a Faunographer’s happy place – 128 species of mammal (cheetahs! black and white rhinos!) 500 bird species (fish eagles! locust finches!) and around 150 types of reptile and amphibian.
I had the fortune to camp here for a few days a little while back – keep an eye on the site for a full write-up from that trip. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Unesco’s decision to protect the delta, this is a pretty good read.