Kafue National Park

Lore & Background

The Kafue Game Reserve was created in the early 1920s to combat attrition of wildlife resources. Kafue National Park was established in the 1950s as a government initiative, with conservationist Norman Carr serving as a key advocate. Establishment of the park may have been possible after the British colonial government moved the traditional owners, the Nkoya people of Mwene Kabulwebulwe, from their traditional hunting grounds into the Mumbwa District to the east in 1924. In 2021, Nkoya leaders called to establish a new province in the area, citing dissatisfaction with development and lack of benefit from tourism.

Reader's Guide

Kafue National Park is significant as Zambia's largest protected area and a key conservation unit for lions, cheetahs, and African wild dogs. It hosts 21 species of antelope, including the reintroduced Kafue lechwe, and over 4,800 African bush elephants. The park's habitats range from miombo woodlands to seasonally flooded Busanga Plains, supporting diverse flora and fauna. Conservation efforts include a Priority Support Plan initiated in February 2021 by Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife and African Parks, leading to a 20-year management agreement. The park is buffered by nine Game Management Areas, though poaching and bushmeat demand remain threats. Infrastructure improvements, including a new law enforcement centre and road grading, have been made since 2021.

Did You Know?

• Kafue National Park is the largest national park in Zambia, but not the second largest in Africa.
• The park is named for the Kafue River and covers North Western and Central provinces only.
• The Kafue lechwe has always been present in the park, with no known extirpation or reintroduction.
• The park is home to Zambia's only endemic bird, the Chaplin's barbet, rated as vulnerable by the IUCN.

Colossal in Scale, Extraordinary in Life

Kafue National Park claims the title of Zambia's largest protected area, spanning roughly 22,400 square kilometres and ranking as the second-largest national park on the African continent. Named after the Kafue River that threads through its heart, the park stretches across three provinces—North Western, Central, and Southern—making it a truly cross-regional landscape. Its sheer size is matched by staggering biological richness: the park shelters 152 mammal species, 515 bird species, 70 reptile species, 58 fish species, and 36 amphibious species, a diversity that places it among the most biodiverse protected areas in the region. Access to this vast expanse is primarily through the Lusaka–Mongu Road, which cuts across the park just north of its centre, while seasonal dirt routes branch out from Kalomo, Namwala, and Kasempa, connecting remote corners to the wider road network. For a visitor, the park's dimensions mean that no single trip can capture its full breadth, and its biodiversity ensures that every stretch of riverbank or woodland holds the potential for an unexpected encounter.

A Complicated Inheritance: Conservation and Displacement

The origins of Kafue National Park are inseparable from the displacement of the people who had lived on that land for generations. The Nkoya people of Mwene Kabulwebulwe were traditional hunters of the area, yet in 1924 the British colonial government relocated them to the Mumbwa District to the east, clearing the way for what would become a protected reserve. A game reserve was first gazetted in the early 1920s to stem the decline of wildlife, and it was not until the 1950s that Norman Carr, a British-Rhodesian conservationist, saw the establishment of the full national park through. Decades later, the unresolved tension between conservation and indigenous rights resurfaced. In 2021, Nkoya leaders publicly called for the creation of an eleventh Zambian province, which they proposed to name Kafue Province. Their grievances centred on the slow pace of development in Central Province and the perception that local communities received little tangible benefit from the tourism the park generated. The demand highlighted how the park's very existence, built on the removal of its original inhabitants, continues to shape political and social conversations in the region.

Conservation Momentum and the Return of Lost Species

Kafue's conservation story has seen both setbacks and hard-won recoveries. The Kafue lechwe, a distinctive antelope, was driven to local extinction in the 1960s by a combination of poaching and dam construction, but in 2025 the species was reintroduced into the park, marking a significant ecological milestone. The park's big-cat populations are equally noteworthy: since 2005, Kafue has been grouped with South Luangwa National Park as a joint lion conservation unit, and it now supports more than 200 lions. It also holds Zambia's largest cheetah population, a healthy leopard community, and is recognised as a stronghold for the African wild dog. Around 4,800 African bush elephants roam the park in herds that are commonly observed by visitors. In February 2021, Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife partnered with African Parks to launch a Priority Support Plan, a 15-month effort to secure technical and financial backing. The initiative's success led the Zambian government to invite African Parks into a 20-year management agreement, signalling a long-term commitment to sustaining the park's wildlife and infrastructure.

A Mosaic of Stone, Soil, and Season

The terrain of Kafue is predominantly flat or gently rolling, punctuated by small porphyritic granite hills between Chonga and Ngoma and occasional sandstone outcrops rising to about 120 metres. Beneath the central park lies the Hook granite massif, a geological foundation of schist, gneiss, and granite, while the northern and southern fringes rest on Karroo sediments of shale, siltstone, and laterite. Soils are largely leached and infertile—pale or orange Kalahari sands mixed with silt—though the floodplains at the park's northern tip carry clay soils, and the Nanzila river drainage holds dark grey alkaline clays. Rainfall shifts dramatically from roughly 510 millimetres in the south to over 1,020 millimetres in the north, with a dry season running from June through October. The annual mean temperature hovers around 21 °C, climbing to 33 °C in the hottest month, October. Vegetation is dominated by miombo woodlands of Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia, interspersed with ancient termite mounds that can be thousands of years old and host candelabra trees and jackalberry. In the far north-west, the Busanga Plains flood seasonally along the Lufupa river, creating a grassland habitat unlike any other in the park.