West Lunga

A little known ecological refuge in North Western Zambia

By: Dorian Tilbury Photos: Warren Munro This photo: The Kabompo River

The West Lunga ecosystem is situated in Mwinilunga and Solwezi Districts and spans 11,754 square kilometres. It encompasses the West Lunga National Park, Chibwika Ntambu, Musele Matebo, Lukwakwa and Chizela Game Management Areas.

In the late 1950’s, W.F.H Ansell wrote an article for African Wildlife entitled “Little Known Game Reserve” in which he described the Lunga Wildlife Reserve. This is now the West Lunga National Park and today perhaps it has even less notoriety than it did fifty years ago. Back then, Ansell and his colleagues in the wildlife department described vast habitats strewn with sable, roan, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, puku, impala, oribi, zebra, blue duiker, lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, buffalo and elephant all in healthy numbers. One wildlife department ranger from 1953 even suggested that the name of the reserve be changed to the Lunga Elephant Reserve because of the staggering numbers he encountered. Today, you are lucky to see a couple of puku in a 5 hour drive through the park.

The habitat remains vast, diverse, well-watered, untouched, and largely devoid of wildlife. It is truly one of the most remote places in Zambia and when one looks around, the word “potential” rings true at every turn.

So what happened?

It is amazing to think that in such a short space of time and with rudimentary hunting techniques, all the wildlife could be depleted. Armed conflicts with Mushala and the Zambian army in the 1980’s probably didn’t help matters and the Maheba refugee camp that took in over 50,000 Angolan refugees over a 20 year period could also have fuelled the demise. But is it possible that thousands of animals can just disappear?

I canoed the West Lunga with my wife in 2004. We spent seven nights on the river and walked into the park each afternoon. We encountered very little wildlife and I remember being struck by the silence at some points, unable to comprehend the thousands of unutilised hectares around me. Birds were prolific and spectacular, the scenery breath taking and absorbing, the river outlandish and extraordinary. There were no people, we had no communications, and it truly felt like we had come to the edge of the earth. The lack of wildlife left us with an uneasy feeling of the carnage that must have transpired but it also inspired us to turn the potential into the conceivable.

The West Lunga ecosystem is dominated by pristine Brachystegia woodland and vast tracts of mavunda forests interspersed with large grass plains and seasonally flooded dambos. The West Lunga and Kabompo Rivers form the boundaries of the national park and there are substantial perennial water courses across the entire system that converge in the Kabompo and eventually drain into the Zambezi River.

The ecological significance of West Lunga is both hydrological, in its contribution to the head waters of the Zambezi and Kafue River systems, and geophysical due to the presence of large tracts of mavunda forest. Mavunda is a local term used to describe the understorey of shrubs, scramblers and climbers that form a dense thicket and comprise the chief characteristic of Cryptosepalum forests. Mavunda is multi storeyed; it has partially closed canopies and is classified as the largest area of dry evergreen forest in Africa. West Lunga literally has thousands of square kilometres of mavunda. Its contribution to atmospheric CO2 mitigation, microclimate regulation, and influence on large scale hydrological systems is paramount and emphasises the need for its conservation action.

The Trident Foundation is a non-profit entity funded by Kalumbila Minerals Ltd. In 2014 they signed an MOU with ZAWA now (the Department of National Parks and World Life) to assist with the management of West Lunga. The West Lunga AMU was under-resourced, underfunded and seriously lacking in manpower. With support from the foundation, patrol coverage has increased exponentially resulting in the removal of thousands of snares, the arrests of numerous illegal hunters and the confiscation of firearms, ammunition and bush meat. But perhaps the most notable achievement of the national parks field officers is the increase in live sightings and indirect sightings of wildlife.

Elephant, buffalo, sable, puku, oribi, impala, the odd waterbuck, an occasional hartebeest and even two stray lions in Chizela were reported in 2015. As the officers gain greater control and spread their patrols further and wider, it seems that not all of the animals disappeared as we had once thought. The mavunda is thick and vast and it has created a sanctuary to which they fled. Slowly and with much trepidation, the wildlife is literally coming out of the woodwork.

A road has now been opened into the park and the pontoon at Jivundu HQ is operational, ferrying park management vehicles across the Kabompo. There is a rustic and rudimentary campsite at Jivundu and the option for tourists to once again enter this majestic “Little Known Reserve” is there. Just keep your expectations of game viewing low! TL Z

Kabompo River

Ngozi floodplain

Kabompo River