The Namibian Savanna Woodland ecoregion covers the Great Escarpment that delimits the interior of southern Africa from the Kaokoveld and Namib Deserts. This broken and deeply dissected escarpment is an area of high endemism for plants, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. The northern area of the escarpment, the Kaoko escarpment, is an endemism "hotspot" (an area of extremely high species richness and endemism). This northern area is poorly protected and is under threat from poaching, off-road driving, and to a lesser extent from farming. The formal conservation status of the southern portion of the ecoregion is poor. Other forms of protection, such as conservancies, private nature reserves and game farms do, however, promote conservation of the area. If these areas can be effectively managed through collaboration with local communities, they may solve the conservation crisis in the area.