UNESCO added the region to its World Heritage list because it is communally owned by the Nama, seminomadic people who descent from from the Khoi-Khoi, a group that was pushed out of the area more than a hundred years ago.

The Nama only recently returned to their homeland, where they now live by building portable houses and herding sheep and cattle. The Nama are the last remaining South African group to follow seasonal migration, a practice that was once common in the area because of the difficulty of land management in such extreme environmental conditions.

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