The Greater Kabompo Ecosystem

The Site:

The Greater Kabompo Ecosystem (GKBE) is in Zambia’s North-Western Province, and includes a well-developed protected network consisting of West Lunga National Park (WLNP) and its adjacent Game Management Areas and Forest Reserves. Once a wildlife stronghold, the GKBE has been depleted due to human impacts, with carnivore species extirpated or severely reduced. However, ongoing baseline ecological monitoring shows that the GKBE is on the road to recovery, and is increasingly a home to a diversity of wildlife including herbivores, meso-carnivores, and omnivores.

Our Work:

ZCP has been working in the Greater Kabompo Ecosystem since 2019, implementing long-term research and monitoring and a restoration plan in partnership with West Lunga Conservation Project, World Wide Fund for Nature – Zambia, and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife. Core ZCP research activities include year-round camera trapping in West Lunga NP and two ground count surveys annually for wildlife in the park and the surrounding GMAs. To date, at least 27 wildlife species have been recorded, live sightings of animals are increasing, and previously absent elephants are returning to the landscape.  

In 2021, collaborations expanded to include the Kafue-West Lunga Conservation Corridor, which connects to the Greater Kafue Ecosystem to the southeast. This corridor has been identified as possibly Zambia’s largest remaining, but unrecognized, habitat corridor. ZCP has started working with The Nature Conservancy to help protect this corridor and sustain connectivity in the face of increasing human impacts (e.g., habitat loss and wildlife depletion). Baseline ecological monitoring is helping to establish wildlife distributions and patterns, and future work will expand to include emerging technologies and consider socio-ecological interactions as a way to model effective conservation in areas with sparse wildlife populations.

In addition to this work and with “Conservation Leadership” being among the four pillars of ZCP, a conservation education programme is run in the Kabompo Ecosystem at primary and secondary levels. This enables learners to explore conservation issues, engage in problem solving and take action.