Nkasa Rupara National Park

Nkasa Rupara National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Nkasa Rupara (formerly: Mamili) National Park
Location	Namibia
Coordinates	18°23′S 23°37′E / 18.383°S 23.617°E / -18.383; 23.617Coordinates: 18°23′S 23°37′E / 18.383°S 23.617°E / -18.383; 23.617
Area	32,000ha
Established	1990

Nkasa Rupara National Park, also Nkasa Lupala National Park, formerly Mamili National Park, is a national park in Namibia. It is centered on the Nkasa and Rupara islands on the Kwando/Linyanti River in the south-western corner of East Caprivi. Botswana lies to the west, south and east, and Sangwali village to the north. It is Namibia's largest formally protected wetland area. It is one of Namibia’s protected areas that benefits local communities surrounding parks. The unfenced park forms a trans-boundary link for wildlife migration between Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. Nkasa Rupara is part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KaZa TFCA).

Mamili National Park was officially proclaimed along with the nearby Mudumu National Park on 1 March 1990. In 2012, the Namibian Government renamed the area as Nkasa Rupara National Park.

The former name, Mamili, referred to a family of traditional leaders of the Mafwe tribe with that surname. The new name, Nkasa Lupala, is a reference to two Kwando River islands within the park's territory.

The Kwando River runs along Nkasa Rupara’s western border and then changes course to become the Linyanti River, forming the park’s south-eastern boundary. It is the same river but is known by different names in various areas. The northern border abuts the Balyewa, Wuparo and Dzoti communal area conservancies The entire area is flat. Most of the park consists of channels of reed beds, lagoons and islands. Nkasa Rupara has relatively narrow, permanently filled main channels of the Kwando/Linyanti River and several periodically flooded channels. The river has its catchment area in Angola and flooding regimes vary considerably. This results in flooding in some years and dry spells during others. To access Nkasa Rupara National Park turn off the B8 Trans-Caprivi Highway, onto the D3511 after the Kongola Bridge. The only entrance track crosses a bridge over a back-channel of the Kwando/Linyanti River, near Sangwali village in Wuparo Conservancy. Rupara Island is reached via a dirt track; Nkasa Island in not reachable because the access is flooded.

Rainfall: 600 millimetres (24 in) – 700 millimetres (28 in) per annum (variable). Temperature: 5 °C (41 °F) - 35 °C (95 °F).