By: Adam Pope Photos: Kasanka Trust / Frank Willems
Features and History
The Lavushi Manda National Park is in Muchinga Province in northern Zambia. It extends over 1,600 square kilometres and comprises large, picturesque dambos (including the Chimfutumba Plain in the north-west), miombo woodland, riverine forest and waterfalls. Its central feature, however, is an iconic and scenic range of quartzite hills and raffia palm bogs running north-east to south-west through the park with the highest peak (Lavushi) rising to just over 1,800 metres. The park protects the headwaters of the Lulimala, Lukulu and Lumbatwa Rivers, thereby providing a critically important environmental buffer to the Bangweu-
lu Wetlands, which is an important fishery. These wetlands also provide a breeding site for the rare shoebill and a range area for endemic Black Lechwe and Tssessebe populations on the Chikuni Plains. The park was created in 1941 and gazetted as a national park in 1972. From the 1980s, declining resources available to the park led to widespread poaching and encroachment. In 2010, the Kasanka Trust took on the management responsibility for Lavushi Manda under an extension of their long-standing public-private partnership with the then Zambia Wildlife Authority (now the Department of National Parks and Wildlife [DNPW]). That work continues but staffing is still small and poaching and encroachment constitute major challenges to management and conservation.
Lavushi Manda Natio Emerging from Obscurity How to Get There and Book
The Lavushi Manda Range
The park lies west of the Great North Road (GNR) 187 km from Serenje. About 40 km north of Serenje is the turn off to the Kasanka National Park, Samfya and Mansa, but continue straight for a further 150 km and shortly after Kalonje Railway siding you turn left to Lavushi Manda, Chiundaponde and the Bangweulu Wetlands. The Fibishi Park entrance gate is approximately 13 km down the road where Fred Mbulwe, the park manager, and his staff will gladly help you with further details.
Species Diversity and Relevance
Sable Herd with a Lichtenstein's Hartebeest
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TRAVEL & LEISURE ZAMBIA
Lavushi Manda has a diverse assemblage of underlying geological units that is reflected in the landscape through varied soil and vegetation units. Animal populations have a corresponding richness
