Kafue National Park

Kafue National Park covers an extensive 22,400 km2 area in western Zambia. The park was proclaimed in 1950, making it Zambia’s oldest national park and one of the world’s most important natural heritage sites. As an essential water source for the region, Kafue is also one of the last vast expanses of the iconic Zambezian ecoregion – and home to elephant, large predators, the highest diversity of antelope species in Africa, and over 500 bird species.

Lack of funding and capacity over the years had hampered park operations and allowed unsustainable resource harvesting, human encroachment and charcoal production to take their toll on both landscape and wildlife. Yet large tracts of wilderness containing a diversity of wildlife species still remain intact. In 2021, Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) invited African Parks to implement a Priority Support Plan. Over 18 months, significant infrastructure investments were made, protection measures improved, jobs created, and education enhanced through a literacy programme. This paved the way for a 20-year management partnership agreement between African Parks and the Zambian government in July 2022, for effective management of Kafue’s valuable landscape.

Kafue’s enormous landscape, its variety of lodges and the recovering wildlife is an opportunity to boost Zambia’s tourism industry, deliver critically needed revenue for the park, and provide employment and benefits to local communities. In this way, Kafue can fulfil its promise to become one of Africa’s most exceptional tourist destinations.

Kafue Highlights

• At 22,400 km2, Kafue National Park is Zambia’s largest national park, with incredibly diverse wildlife: of 158 mammal species, 21 are antelope.
• Aerial surveys and collaring of a range of species over the past two years have shown a growing elephant population along with encouraging numbers of species such as buffalo, puku, sable and hartebeest.
• Forming part of Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), which hosts over half of Africa's savannah elephant population, Kafue has the potential to be one of the most important sanctuaries for this species.
• Formalising the relationship with communities around Kafue led to the signing of MOUs with 15 Community Resource Boards.
• Since 2022, Kafue has experienced a 196% increase in tourism revenue  

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) is the overarching regulatory authority that ensures the effective management of protected areas in Zambia. African Parks and the DPNW have been working together in Zambia since 2003 in Liuwa Plain National Park and 2008 in Bangweulu Wetlands. In June 2022, African Parks entered into a third management partnership agreement with the Zambian Government for the management of Kafue National Park. With this agreement, Kafue National Park became the 20th park to join the African Parks’ portfolio

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