When Crispin Chizabulyo started as one of the first eight government game guards in East Caprivi in 1973, conservation wasn’t a familiar concept. People believed that God would always provide. But the wildlife disappeared, poached to remnant herds or local extinction. Yet conservation gained a hold, and the game returned. Retired since 2005, Crispin revisited Nkasa in 2017 to see the fruits of his work.

During the colonial period of German South West Africa, the Caprivi was largely ignored. The first German outpost was established here only 25 years after the proclamation of the colony – at Schuckmannsburg, considered a strategic location at the time. After World War I, the South African administration paid similarly scant attention to the remote tract. A ‘Native Commissioner’ was posted at Katima Mulilo, but little development took place.

Enforcement of conservation laws fell under the police, yet was generally haphazard. The first official conservation unit in Caprivi was created by the Department of Nature Conservation in 1973, consisting of eight local game guards under the supervision of a South African official. The initial work of the game guards mostly entailed community outreach and anti-poaching patrols.

In 1974, South Africa installed a massive military presence in Caprivi to ward off threats to its rule over the Namibian territory, causing rapid changes to the area and impacting heavily on its wildlife. By the time Mudumu and Mamili (now Nkasa Rupara) were proclaimed in 1990, populations of most large game had been decimated. The initial years after independence were no better for the region’s wild animals. Having been disenfranchised from all natural resources for decades, local communities had no incentives to conserve the remnants of once-abundant game.

It took years of liaison by NGOs and government conservation staff to build trust amongst the people and thus establish a basis for community conservation. The first conservancy was registered at Salambala along the Chobe River in 1998. Wuparo Conservancy, along the northern border of Nkasa Rupara, followed in 1999, with more conservancies around Mudumu and along the Kwando registered later.

The park is named after two broad areas of raised ground in the Kwando Delta, which become islands at the height of flooding. Nkasa Island is located in the south, and Rupara in the north-east. The origin and meaning of the words nkasa and rupara (also spelled lupala) are unclear.

The first park name, Mamili, originated as a title bestowed on a local chief under the dominion of the BaLozi King. The title was later used as a name by local chiefs after the end of BaLozi rule. The park was named after a Chief Mamili, but later renamed.

From the east, the seasonal floods of the Zambezi push a backwater, the Chobe River, towards the Linyanti. The Chobe is not a real river, but a fluctuating channel. When the floods of the Zambezi recede, the Chobe’s waters change direction, siphoned back east by the dropping levels of the main river.

The Linyanti and Chobe meet at a narrow gap in the Linyanti Fault. Here, dammed up along the ridge, a large, mysterious waterbody called Lake Liambezi appears during years of exceptional floods. At such times, the lake is also fed by another overflow of the Zambezi, the Bukalo Channel. The lake may linger for years, and may be dry for decades. Since 2007, it received intermittent inflow and supported abundant fish stocks and birdlife.

All these linkages depend on how much water which river feeds into what area, and when. If the right volumes of water arrive in the right place, Lake Liambezi, or the Savuti Marsh may come alive.

At the centre of it all, Nkasa Rupara undergoes an incredible annual transformation – several times. The park’s average annual rainfall only just exceeds 500 millimetres and is highly erratic from one rainy season to the next. For much of the year, the days are hot and the land is parched. Yet Nkasa Rupara has two wet cycles: the local rains are enough to green the landscape and create extensive patches of bog between December and March. And in June or July, when the land has long dried up again, the Kwando’s floods arrive – after a slow meander of many months across hundreds of kilometres, fed by heavy rains in Angola.

This marshland in the sand supports a great diversity of species. Many are wetland specialists that aren’t found in Namibia’s more arid reaches. Hippo and crocodile, bushpig, sitatunga, lechwe, reedbuck and waterbuck are all at home here. Even the puku, a smaller cousin of the lechwe, is occasionally recorded, although Nkasa Rupara lies along the southern fringes of its range. The delta is a paradise for elephants, and large groups of impala and plains zebra, and huge herds of buffalo all come and go. Birdlife is prolific, with around 370 species recorded in the park.

Conservancies have become a vital facet of conservation successes in the Zambezi Region, as elsewhere around Namibia. Nkasa Rupara is completely unfenced and game moves freely across park and country borders. The park itself is too small to provide a permanent home for most large game, and their ability to migrate is critical to their survival. Elephant, buffalo, zebra, lion, and wild dog all roam far and wide.

MET stations in Nkasa Rupara and Mudumu were upgraded in 2017 and now offer excellent facilities for park staff. Research on wildlife movement and population dynamics done in the Zambezi Region and the larger Okavango–Kwando–Zambezi system within KAZA often includes Nkasa Rupara, as it is a focal point for many species.

Tourism and conservation hunting in the conservancies around the parks generates crucial benefits that promote conservation. Income to conservancies pays for their running costs. Game meat is distributed to households and employment boost local livelihoods. Hunting and tourism activities are zoned to avoid conflicts.

The marshland maze that is Nkasa Rupara lies at the very heart of KAZA. With connecting channels to both the Okavango and Zambezi, the Kwando Delta is a vital linkage in a complex wetland system. The rivers don’t belong to any one country and the wise use of their waters, and their regional conservation and management, depend on collaboration between nations. Such cross-border cooperation is a prerequisite of KAZA – and the viability of Namibia’s small riverfront parks, which rely on connectivity conservation across the landscape.

Tourism and conservation hunting in the conservancies around the parks generates crucial benefits that promote conservation. Income to conservancies pays for their running costs. Game meat is distributed to households and employment boost local livelihoods. Hunting and tourism activities are zoned to avoid conflicts.
The marshland maze that is Nkasa Rupara lies at the very heart of KAZA. With connecting channels to both the Okavango and Zambezi, the Kwando Delta is a vital linkage in a complex wetland system. The rivers don’t belong to any one country and the wise use of their waters, and their regional conservation and management, depend on collaboration between nations. Such cross-border cooperation is a prerequisite of KAZA – and the viability of Namibia’s small riverfront parks, which rely on connectivity conservation across the landscape.