About Us: Namaqualand Gifts
Welcome to Namaqualand Gifts…
Or As More People Know Us As : Nama-Gifts
WHAT WE DO.
We sell very special nature conservation gifts in Namaqualand. These gifts includes tiny nature conservation plots in the hart of the sandveld region of Namaqualand.
Also included in our gift packages are special and unique novelty titles on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Islands. These titles are linked to the conservation plots we sell.
On this ABOUT US page we are going to tell you exactly what we do – where we do it – and why.
We hope that we will be able to convince you to buy one or more of the nature conservation plots inside the unique Wild Flower Garden & Reserve that we are about to create on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island.
We sell these special gift packages to help save the fauna and flora in the Namaqualand sandveld desert. More about this later.
WHERE IS NAMAQUALAND?
Namaqualand is well known for its spectacular wild flower show every year. Well… at least when it gets its normal winter rains. This is a beautiful semi-desert area and host more than 49% of the worlds species of succulent plants.
So where exactly is Namaqualand?
Namaqualand is in Southern Africa, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
The Namaqualand “sandveld” region [also called the Coastal Plains] is a strip of land running about 18 miles wide along the Atlantic Ocean – about 500km in length.
This northern part of Namaqualand is famous for it’s friendly people, wild flowers from July until spring, its wealth of minerals, including diamonds, and it’s rich cultural history.
Namaqualand is a popular region for both international and local tourists.
Here is a map of Africa showing the bigger Namaqualand:
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO?
Our aim is to tell as many citizens of the world about the most amazing and most beautiful desert on the planet. She is called the Namaqualand Sandveld.
We want to tell the good people on earth that she is in danger of loosing her beauty if we do not help her urgently.
And to help her – or at least a small part of her – we created something very special – something fun and exciting – and something we are about to share with you.
We start this conservation project to help save Namaqualand. Our first goal is to create a special Wild Flower Garden on a very unique desert island in the middle of the Sandveld region of Namaqualand.
Each gift package includes a special nature conservation plot that is inside this Wild Flower Gardens and Reserve – we are busy creating right now.
You can read more about the different gift package here and what is included in each.
This wild flower garden is situated on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma island – a small piece of land in the center of the diamond fields of Namaqualand.
You can listen to the amazing story of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island below.
These nature conservation gifts are very special.
They are truly unique gift packages – there are 6 different packages to choose from. You can look at them HERE.
MAP: NA-KOI-JA-MA ISLAND
The map below shows you where Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island is – and where the Wild Flower Gardens will be created. Each conservation plot will be populated the indigenous succulent plats of Namaqualand and plot and title owners will be part of this “prorogation” prosess, if they wish to be.
Profits from the sales of these conservation plots and gift packages are used in the creation of the wild flower gardens and its maintenance.
There are also other Namaqualand conservation projects we support, including “before and after” landscape studies to see how global warming has effects this region. You will learn more about these projects in the VIP Members area where all title and plot owner have automatic access to.
WHY IS NAMAQUALAND SO UNIQUE:
The “Succulent Karoo” – defined as an eco-region by the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – incorporates the entire area of Namaqualand.
Namaqualand, famous for it’s biodiversity needs further in-depth study of its plant species, it also needs protection from new localized threats – including that of global warming.
Discoveries of new fauna and flora are still made in this region. You can read more about it in the latest book on Namaqualand’s Succulent plants at the link below: It’s on the website of the South African National Biodiversity Institute [SANBI]
Months of tramping through Namaqualand leads to a new discovery and succulent book
You can also visit the Wikipedia link on the Succulent Karoo Region:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succulent- Karoo
One of the Richest Treasure on Earth:
The Succulent Karoo hosts with one of our planet’s richest treasures of succulent plants. Here you will find more than one-third’s of the entire world’s succulent species.
But there is more: 40% of the succulent plants in the Succulent Karoo are endemic – meaning that you will find them nowhere else on earth – but here, in our own back garden.
Sadly, the succulent plants and flowers of Succulent Karoo, and specifically Namaqualand, face enormous conservation challenges over the next few decades.
Climate change is just one of them – but there are a few others that is just as important to overcome.
Conservation Challenges:
It is concerning that the full impact long term climate change will have on the Fauna & Flora of the Namaqualand is still largely unknown, but there is something relatively easy we can do – right now – to help scientists prepare long term plans to deal with this ever-present threat.
The other conservation challenges we face in Namaqualand are:
- Illegal harvesting of indigenous succulents [plants] – not only by organized syndicates, but also by private nurseries and private traders.
- Mining activities and various infrastructure projects: for example, wind and solar farms.
- Uncontrolled informal farming and the lack of knowledge by small farmers and private and public land users.
- Not enough money for research, and not enough understanding, empathy and concern by the general public to help fund this type of research and conservation.
Funding for Conservation:
Research and conservation is expensive and government bodies, especially in developing countries, find it increasingly difficult to fund such projects. Taxpayers demand different types of personal benefits for housing and services. Nature conservation usually comes second, third, or even last in place.
Lack of government funding leaves the onus of environmental care to large corporations, bigger companies and private individuals to foot the bill for conservation. This is also true for conservation in a place like Namaqualand, even if it is well known and a great tourist attraction – locally and internationally.
We need to find new and creative ways to ensure and secure continuous funding for eco-education, conservation and research projects.
The Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island conservation project: to sell the “exclusive use rights” to a personal tiny plot of land and include a fun novelty title, plus gift packages, to individuals, is our way to help generate funds towards our much needed conservation efforts.
The gift packages you buy from NamaGifts.com will help our team to build and maintain a Wild Flower Garden & Reserve on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island, situated in the heart of the Namaqualand Sandveld desert.
You can read the story of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island HERE.
PRIVATE CONSERVATION INITIATIVE
This is a 100% private conservation initiative, as this project grows in success, it may enable us to draw up a basic ‘fundraising blueprint’ for similar future conservation projects for NGO’s.
The private company that has purchased Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island, did it not only to protect the plants and unique biome species on the island, but to also raise funds and awareness for conservation – and to help build, establish and maintain the ongoing research at the Wild Flower Garden reserve on the island.
This Namaqualand conservation project also aims to find ways to create international awareness about the importance of protecting the fauna & flora of Namaqualand.
We are not sure where the future will lead us to, but we’ve made a start, and the start was to sell “exclusive use” rights to tiny plots of land, with personal rights and custodianship to these plots, on the island. This immediately helps to raise funds for our ongoing conservation projects.
You can buy your own NAMAQUALAND GIFT PACKAGE HERE.
Thank You
