Etosha National Park

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A Namibian national park of about 22,270 km2 around the Etosha salt pan. Proclaimed in 1907 by the German colonial administration as Game Reserve No. 2, it originally extended to the Skeleton Coast and covered on the order of 80,000–100,000 km2. It was cut to its present size in 1970 following the Odendaal Commission, which excised land to create ethnic 'homelands' under South African apartheid administration of South West Africa. Etosha is therefore a direct demonstration that park boundaries are political artefacts: they were drawn, enlarged and cut for reasons that had nothing to do with ecology.