The Iona–Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area is a transfrontier conservation area. It encompasses

Iona National Park Iona National Park ( Portuguese: ) is the largest and oldest national park in Angola. It is situated in the Southwestern corner of the country, in Namibe Province. It is roughly bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the West, an escarpment to the East ...

and

Namibe Partial Reserve Namibe Partial Reserve () is a protected area in Angola. It is located to the north of Iona National Park, and separated by a narrow strip of occupied land along the Curoca River. This reserve has IUCN Category IV status and was proclaimed in 19 ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Skeleton Coast National Park Skeleton Coast National Park is a national park located in northwest Namibia, and has the most inaccessible shores, dotted with shipwrecks. The park was established in 1971 and has a size of .Shollenbarger, MariaMars on Earth: Traveling Namibia' ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

, making it one of the largest in the world. The two countries share a common boundary along the

Cunene River The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands southwards to the border with Namibia. It then flows in a westerly direction along the border until it reaches ...

, which is where Iona and Skeleton Coast also meet. The Namibe Partial Reserve is north of Iona and shares a border along the

Curoca River The Curoca is an intermittent river in Namibe Province, southern Angola which has residual lagoons in dry seasons. It is one of only two rivers in Iona National Park, which also includes moving sand dunes of the Namib Desert. The Curoca forms part ...

. The Memorandum of Agreement for the transfrontier area was signed on May 3, 2018. The area is important for migration across the region, protection of the Cunene River ecosystem, as well as shielding the '' Welwitschia mirabillis'' plants. It includes at least 90% of the world population of Desert plated lizards. Other animals include

black-faced impala The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'', lit. 'black-footed high-horn' in Ancient Greek) is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus '' Aepyceros'', and tribe Aepycerotini, it ...

, desert elephants, and

black rhinoceros The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East Africa, East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Moza ...

. The area has dunes, plains, and rough mountains. It also has a 1 km wide stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. A potential expansion, called the Three Nations Namib Desert Transfrontier Conservation Area (TNND TFCA), would include the

ǀAi-ǀAis/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park The ǀAi-ǀAis/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park is a peace park straddling the border between South Africa and Namibia. It was formed in 2003 by combining the Namibian '' ǀAi-ǀAis Hot Springs Game Park'' and the South African ''Richtersveld N ...

to the south.

References

External links

Official page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iona - Skeleton Coast Transfrontier Conservation Area Nature conservation in Angola Nature conservation in Namibia Transboundary protected areas Angola–Namibia border

See also

References

External links