Providing a safe refuge
for elephants and
other wildlife of the
Lower Zambezi National Park
in Zambia

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Wildlife Conservation in Zambia

Wildlife in Zambia is highly diverse and widely distributed throughout the country.  The diversity of wildlife and its habitats are given legal protection in the:
 

• 19 National Parks, covering approx. 62,000 square Kilometres equivalent to 8% of the total land;

• 34 Gazetted GMA’s, covering approx. 162,000 square Kilometres, equivalent to 22% of the total land

• 4 Bird sanctuaries.

National Parks are known as natural areas, declared by law for purposes of protecting and perpetuating the integrity of habitats and biodiversity.

GMA’s are communally owned areas where human habitation is permissible, along with economic activities that are not inimical to in-situ wildlife management. Zambia’s efforts to protect and manage wildlife have been constrained by a number of factors, including:

Resource Allocation
The most important factor is the inadequate allocation of resources for general management, personal emoluments and operations, such as monitoring and enforcement.

Illegal Hunting and Over-exploitation Illegal hunting, especially for commercial purposes, is one of the main causes of wildlife decline in Zambia. It is estimated that from the 1960s to the late 1990s, the population of African elephants declined from approximately 300,000 to between 15,000 and 22,000. Similarly, the population of black rhino dropped from an estimated 15,000 during the 1980s to just but a few by the end of the 1990s. Over-exploitation through the legal licensing system has been attributed to the lack of sound monitoring  systems.

Inadequate Planning
Due to the inability to generate data for adaptive management, preparation of management plans has not been done for most protected areas, hence wildlife management in these areas has continued to be on an ad-hoc basis.

Inadequate Monitoring Information
Management of wildlife requires accurate and precise information on the abundance and distribution of economically important wildlife species and the status of their habitats. However, largely due to inadequate resource allocation and lack of expertise, this information is non-existent for most protected areas.

Land-use pressure
With only 12.1 people per square kilometre , when compared with other countries in the region, Zambia has a low population density. However, the high population growth rate of 3.2% per year, coupled with a harsh economic environment have resulted in human encroachment in areas around the national parks, and increased settlement in GMA’s

This elephant was snared by poachers. 
The CLZ team dart and treat the elephant in the hopes that his wound will heal.