A thorough environmental profile of north-central Namibia was launched on Monday, 20 November, at the  National Library.

"This important book concerns Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto, maybe the most fascinating areas of this country, and where half of all Namibians live", said the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Mr Malima, in his opening speech.

The title of the book is: "A profile of north-central Namibia", was produced in the Directorate of Environmental Affairs of MET, and published by Gamsberg Macmillan.

The book is divided into two parts.

The first deals with the resources that are available in the area.

The second part deals with human and other pressures on the available resources.

It consists of following chapters:

• Introduction

• The shape of the land

• Climate

• Water

• Vegetation and soils

• Wildlife and tourism

• People, their health and education

• Land and governance

• Farming

• Household economies

• Looking to the future, from the past and present

The book is easy to read and contains a lot of essential information. The layout is spacious and the large format (A3), makes comparison of different large maps easy. The book is illustrated with well-chosen photographs, aerial photos, graphs and a large number of thematic maps and tables. The text is not only directed to scientists and administrators, but should also be understandable to most people. 

John Mendelsohn, one of the authors stated that: "The book which is presented here today is not the only product of work done by the Environmental Profiles Project.

The other product, as important as the book; Is all the information produced during this project. Most of the information is available in digital format in GIS databases from the DEA. We hope that it will benefit other people, who are welcome to use it, update it and analyse it for their own purposes free of charge".

The other authors of the book are Selma el Obeid and Carole Roberts.

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