The Kalahari is located in the centre of southern Africa. It covers a surface of 1.2 million square kilometres, about the triple size of Germany. Its centre is located in eastern Namibia and Botswana, however, its red sand reaches from the South African Oranje River to the border of the Congolese rain forest.

The Kalahari is actually no genuine desert. Some parts can be considered as half deserts, however the largest part of the Kalahari is thorn shrub and dry savannah that is covered with acacias and, in the north, with Mopane forests. The annual precipitation is between 150 and 250 mm and in the north up to 500 mm. The lack of surface water has probably lead to the fact that most people consider the Kalahari as a desert. Due to the high water permeability of the soil, rain water trickles away very fast. It’s only in the numerous basins that the water prevails for some time. The occasional water surfaces are of great importance for the wildlife animals that live here in large numbers.

The highest animal density found in the Kalahari is in the Okavango delta. The Okavango River has its source in the wet Benguela plateau in Angola and flows hundreds of kilometres through the Kalahari, before it flows into an enormous delta in the northwest of Botswana. The delta is 200 km long and covers 17,000 km². Due to omitted rain seasons in Angola and high water withdrawals for irrigation projects in Namibia, the water level of the Okavango delta sank significantly, a fact that threatens this world-wide unique ecological system. The implementation of Namibian plans to withdraw water via a pipeline for the water supply of Windhoek would have catastrophic effects.

The most important industry in Botswana, industrially operated cattle breeding, has lead to a degradation of the Kalahari’s ecological system, caused by excessive well drillings and overgrazing.