Legacy Landscapes Fund Project Candidate | Status 05/2021

North Luangwa gains its outstanding global value from the Luangwa River, which has shaped a rich and biodiverse landscape over millennia, and its pristine wilderness, giving the park its very special character.

The remote North Luangwa National Park in Zambia is one of the finest wilderness experiences in the entire Southern African region, boasting the “big five” – elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard, and lion – as well as the endemic Cookson’s wildebeest.

In 2003, an ambitious translocation was started to reintroduce the black rhino back into the park. As a result, the North Luangwa National Park harbors Zambia’s only black rhino population and is now home to Zambia’s highest elephant population.

North Luangwa National Park is the anchor of the transboundary conservation initiative, the Malawi Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area encompassing more than 32,000 km².

Key Threats

• Bushmeat and ivory poaching and illegal high-value timber extraction
• Land conversion and encroachment
• Uncontrolled fires and agricultural effects on hydrology

Key Activities

• Natural resource management, law enforcement, and protection
• Support and diversify livelihoods of local communities
• Develop Community governance and ownership for natural resources

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Legacy Landscapes Fund Project Candidate | Status 05/2021

Iona National Park is situated in the southwest corner of Angola in the oldest desert in the world. It is contiguous to the Skeleton Coast National Park in Namibia, creating one of the largest transfrontier conservation areas on the planet.

This special ecosystem has high endemism, with many reptiles, plant, and bird species occurring only in this eco-region. Key terrestrial faunal species include the South African oryx, springbuck, Hartmann’s zebra, ostrich, cheetah, leopard, and brown hyena, although the latter three predators are found in fairly low numbers.

Iona is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” with at least 150 species recorded. The Kaokoveld Desert and the Namib desert (covering the largest area of the park) are recognized as “globally remarkable” in terms of their biological diversity and are mentioned by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as centers of floral endemism.

Key Threats

• Human-wildlife conflicts over land and water access
• Impacts of climate change
• Unsustainable grazing practices and other human activities along the periphery and inside the park

Key Activities

• Improve management of the park
• Promote community engagement and development
• Develop integrated land use planning for sustainable co-existence between traditional communities and wildlife
• Promote sustainable tourism options

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Legacy Landscapes Fund Project Candidate | Status 05/2021

The Gonarezhou National Park provides habitats for a wide range of animal species but is most famous for its elephants. Home to about 11,000 individuals, the Gonarezhou truly deserves its vernacular name “Place of Elephants”.

Situated in the southeast of Zimbabwe on the border with Mozambique, its landscape features scenic sandstone cliffs, wide meandering rivers, seasonal pans, and extensive woodlands. Towards the north of the park, the iconic Chilojo Cliffs reach a height of up to 180m.

Together with neighboring national parks in South Africa and Mozambique, Gonarezhou is part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park which covers a cross-border protected area of around 35,000 km².

The Gonarezhou Conservation Trust is a co-management partnership between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Its vision is to be a model for sustainable conservation in Africa where ecosystems are protected, tourism for conservation thrives, and stakeholders matter.

Key Threats

• Ongoing land conversion in areas adjacent to the park
• Rising human-wildlife conflict and loss of ecological connectivity to other protected areas
• Poaching for illegal wildlife trade and bushmeat

Key Activities

• Ensure protection of the park’s wildlife and habitats and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts
• Improve sustainability of the park through green economy, including eco-tourism
• Work with neighboring communities on sustainable land use and restore corridors

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Legacy Landscapes Fund Project Candidate | Status 05/2021

Odzala-Kokoua National Park is one of Africa’s oldest national parks. Designated in 1935, it received biosphere reserve status in 1977. Covering an expansive 13,487 km² area, Odzala lies in the heart of the Congo Basin, the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. Odzala’s dense rainforest is dotted with over 140 known open saline clearing called bais which are of exceptional value for wildlife in the region. Forest elephants have been documented to travel large distances to Odzala for these nutritionally important meeting grounds.

The Congo Basin spans more than two million square kilometers across six countries and accounts for 18 percent of the world’s remaining rainforest. Humans have occupied the area for over 50,000 years, living in harmony with one of the most biologically diverse and species-rich areas on the planet. Simultaneously, the basin delivers clean water, food, and shelter to more than 75 million people.

Large tracts of savanna are present in the South, making Odzala home to a unique mix of species. For example, Odzala is believed to have the only viable population of spotted hyena in the entire Congo Basin.

Key Threats

• Illegal wildlife and ivory trafficking
• Bushmeat poaching
• Mining activities

Key Activities

• Strengthen wildlife research and monitoring
• Improve the effectiveness of the park management
• Reinforce anti-poaching and application of protected area laws
• Build a constituency for conservation among local communities, diversify livelihoods and develop sustainable tourism

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