Luambe National Park

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river bank

elephants

The Luambe National Park is located in the eastern province of Zambia. The park is situated north of the famous South Luangwa National Park and south of the wild and remote North Luangwa National Park. Like its neighbours it is located in the Luangwa Valley, which is situated on the ridge of the large Rift Valley.

The small-ish park (30.000 ha) is mainly a flat plateau with partial dense vegetation, solitary lagoons and mopane tree forest. It sits about 500-700 metres above sea level.

The life force of the Luangwa Valley is the Luangwa River, which permanently flows, is adjoined by hundreds of small affluent rivers. The picture of the Luangwa River changes very often according to the water level, which leads to a changing topography of its river banks and the small adjacent lagoons. This combination of water and land has created a very special ecosystem. In Luambe, one can find many water holding lagoons, even during the dry season, which leads to a high game and species diversity.

Luambe National Park was unfunded until 1999. As a consequence, excessive poaching led to a drastic decline in wildlife. Only a few, very shy animals remained. Luangwa-Wilderness e.V, a non-profit association, aims to help with the preservation and rebuilding of the park. This is done in close cooperation with the Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) with the involvement of local communities.

Lessons learnt from the neighbouring North Luangwa National Park, through work undertaken by Frankfurt Zoological Society, illustrated how animal populations can be boosted with appropriate management and planning. In the last three years, the building of a lodge in Luambe National Park has already aided a good recovery and improvement in wildlife numbers.

The overall aim is that the Luambe National Park will be managed by Zambians in the future and will be open to tourism with the sole aim to preserve a unique part of Africa. Longer term, plans exist to establish corridors between the northern and southern National parks like the transfrontier-parks, incorporating parts of the Kruger-Park (South-Africa), Gaza National Park (Mozambique) and Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe.