Etosha cut to 22,270 km2 to create apartheid 'homelands'
Acting on the Odendaal Commission's recommendations, the South African administration of South West Africa excised the great majority of the remaining reserve, reducing Etosha to its present 22,270 km2 and releasing the excised land for ethnically defined homelands. The park's modern shape is an artefact of apartheid territorial policy, not of ecological design.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Etosha National Park · protected_area · Namibia
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
State of Protected Areas in Namibia, with Etosha proclamation history (Game Reserve No. 2, 1907) and the 1970 Odendaal reduction
Etosha was proclaimed as Game Reserve No. 2 by Ordinance 88 of 1907 covering roughly 80,000-100,000 km2, and was reduced to about 22,270 km2 in 1970 following the Odendaal Commission to release land for apartheid-era homelands; MEFT's state-of-the-parks reporting describes the current protected-area estate.
Namibia Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) · 2020 · Partly verified
https://www.meft.gov.na/files/files/State%20of%20the%20Parks%20Report.pdf ; proclamation history corroborated at https://etoshanationalpark.com.na/park-information/etosha-history/
Recorded on Etosha National Park
- Etosha proclaimed Game Reserve No. 2 by the German colonial administration
- Etosha cut to 22,270 km2 to create apartheid 'homelands'
- Namibia's Nature Conservation Amendment Act extends wildlife rights to communal-area residents
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.