Qualla: Lower Zambezi National Park

Lower Zambezi National Park: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joachim Huber from Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0. For decades before it became a national park, the floodplain along the north bank of the Zambezi was effectively one man's backyard: the private game reserve of Zambia's president. Tourists were kept out. Wildlife was, by that peculiar accident of autocratic privilege, left largely undisturbed. In 1983 the area was gazetted as Lower Zambezi National Park, and the accident became policy. What survived is one of the few truly untouched wilderness blocks left in southern Africa, a UNESCO-listed floodplain shared with Zimbabwe's Mana Pools across the river, ringed by mountains, and now in the middle of a fight over whether a copper mine can legally be dug inside its boundary.

Image: Joachim Huber from Switzerland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lower Zambezi National Park: The Shape of the Valley

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joachim Huber from Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0. The park slopes down from the Zambezi Escarpment to the river. Two ecoregions overlap here: Southern Miombo woodlands on the higher ground in the north, and Zambezian and Mopane woodlands on the lower slopes in the south, distinguished mostly by which species of tree dominates. A...

Image: Joachim Huber from Switzerland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lower Zambezi National Park: A Wild River's Wildlife

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joachim Huber from Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0. Most of the large mammals in Lower Zambezi congregate along the floodplain. Cape buffalo, in herds sometimes several hundred strong. An elephant population that is one of the most visible in Zambia. Lion. Leopard. Many species of antelope including kudu, impala, and waterbuck. Ni...

Image: Joachim Huber from Switzerland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lower Zambezi National Park: The Kangaluwi Mine Fight

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joachim Huber from Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2011 a company called Mwembeshi Resources Limited proposed a copper mine inside the park. The project, named the Kangaluwi Mine, was approved by Zambian regulators in 2014 despite intense opposition from conservation groups and tourism operators. A decade of legal battles foll...

Image: Joachim Huber from Switzerland | CC BY-SA 2.0

Lower Zambezi National Park: Across the River

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Babakathy, CC0. From the north bank you can see the southern bank, and on the southern bank is Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park, established in 1975 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. The two parks together protect roughly 6,800 square kilometers of continuous floodplain h...

Image: Babakathy | CC0