Gobabeb
By conducting training courses, Gobabeb aims to improve the public awareness and knowledge of dry land ecology and environmental issues.
The station consists of permanent researchers, students, and interns, as well as short time visitors such as school and university groups, and tourists.
The Station is located 120 kilometres (75 mi) south-east of Walvis Bay in Namibia's largest nature reserve, the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
Gobabeb lies at the meeting point of three different ecosystems: the ephemeral Kuiseb River, the Sand Dunes Sea to the south and the gravel plains to the north.
The station consists of the community research center, a library, laboratories, an office block, a meeting hall, the iconic water tower, staff houses and accommodations for visitors.
As the station is located in the Namib desert, the climate is hyperarid with an average annual precipitation of 23.8 mm, about 65% during the summer months (December to May).
[1] Gobabeb's remoteness from the Atlantic explains why it is significantly warmer than the Namibian coast (Walvis Bay average temperature is only 15.4 °C) despite being at a greater altitude.
The Gobabeb Namib Research Institute has been built as an example of appropriate technology, which shows how sustainable development can be achieved in daily life.
The library started in 1963 with its first in-house publications Scientific Papers of the Namib Desert Research Station by Gobabeb's first director Charles Koch.
The overall goal of research at Gobabeb is to improve the understanding of arid land ecosystems, particularly their variability, with the focus on supporting well-trained specialists and decision-makers in southern Africa and the world.
In particular, long term ecological monitoring of climate and biodiversity, which in some cases has been collected continuously for almost 50 years, represents a valuable contribution to global scientific knowledge.
GIST research projects included one term of study (approximately 3-month) and covered a wide variety of topics related to the ecology of the Namib Desert.
In 1958 the Austrian entomologist Dr. Charles Koch did an expedition in the Namib Desert, focusing on the large diversity of beetles found in the area.
In March 1998 Gobabeb Training and Research Center (GTRC) was founded as a joint venture agreement between the DRFN and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET).
Additionally, the German Ministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) has been a great supporter of GTRC.
Researchers from all over the world study subjects including desertification, water procurement, and the adaption of animals and plants to the desert environment.
