Southwest African Coastal Drylands (AT10) Southwest African Coastal Drylands (AT10) Southwest African Coastal Drylands (AT10) Southwest African Coastal Drylands (AT10) Southwest African Coastal Drylands (AT10)

Image credits: (1) Joachim Huber, Creative Commons (2) Courtesy of Winfried Bruenken (3) Courtesy of Gregroire Dubois (4) Courtesy of Uwe Günther (5) Courtesy of Alchemist

Southwest African Coastal Drylands bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The conservation target is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • 26,930
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 4
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 71%
    Protection Target
  • 9
    Protection Level

The Southwest African Coastal Drylands bioregion, part of the Southern Afrotropics subrealm located in the Afrotropics realm, runs the length of Namibia’s Atlantic Coast through the southern half of Angola. It is an extremely arid region consisting of sandy coastal deserts, steppe, and dry savanna woodlands with four ecoregions altogether—Kaokoveld Desert (98), Namaqualand-Richtersveld Steppe (102), Namib Desert (103), Namibian Savanna Woodlands (104)—totaling approximately 27 million hectares of land area. The bioregion is well known for the sand seas with vast dunes up to 300 meters in height and the foggy Skeleton Coast, which provides a vital source of moisture to sustain life in the harsh conditions of the desert. A number of unusual plant and animal species are found here, including the succulent quiver tree.

The Southwest African Coastal Drylands bioregion is part of the Southern Afrotropics subrealm and is made up of four ecoregions: Namibian Savanna Woodlands [1], Kaokoveld Desert [2], Namib Desert [3], Namaqualand-Richtersveld Steppe [4].

Learn more about each of the ​Southwest African Coastal Drylands ecoregions below.

Hartmann's zebra

Iconic Species

Hartmann's zebra
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