Lower Zambezi-Mana Pools
Transfrontier Conservation Area
A vast wildlife landscape held together by the Zambezi River
Lower Zambezi-Mana Pools spans protected areas, safari areas, community land and conservancies across Zambia and Zimbabwe. At its centre is the Zambezi River, which links the landscape ecologically while forming the international boundary between the two countries.
Key Facts
Countries
Zambia and Zimbabwe
Area
18 515 km²
Formal establishment
Defining natural feature
The Zambezi River below Lake Kariba
Peace Parks priority protected areas
Lower Zambezi National Park and Mana Pools National Park
World Heritage status
Mana Pools National Park forms part of a World Heritage Site
History and Establishment
Why this landscape matters
The Lower Zambezi and Mana Pools conservation areas face one another across the Zambezi River. Together with the surrounding game-management areas, safari areas, communal land and conservancies, they form a large and comparatively open wildlife system.
The river sustains forests, floodplains and seasonal pools while providing a source of water for wildlife and people. Elephants, buffalo, predators and other species move through the surrounding landscape, rather than being confined to a single national park.
Mana Pools is especially important because wildlife can still move relatively freely through the wider Zimbabwean conservation estate. Protecting that space requires coordinated management not only within the national park, but across the safari areas, community land and conservancies around it.
Peace Parks’ priority protected areas
Greater Mana Pools Ecosystem, Zimbabwe
The Greater Mana Pools Ecosystem brings Mana Pools National Park together with surrounding safari areas and adjoining land under a wider long-term management vision. In 2023, the Government of Zimbabwe and Peace Parks signed a 20-year co-management agreement for the ecosystem. The agreement moves the work beyond support to an individual national park and towards the coordinated management of the broader conservation system.
BEYOND PROTECTED AREA BOUNDARIES
The spaces between protected areas are part of living landscapes, shaped by the people who call them home and by the wildlife that moves through them. Ecological linkages help keep these landscapes connected across boundaries.
The landscape connection
The Greater Mana Pools Ecosystem contains important seasonal movement areas that facilitate gene flow, predator dispersal and connectivity of riparian ecosystems.
Peace Parks in Lower Zambezi-Mana Pools
Peace Parks supported the dialogue that led to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Zambia and Zimbabwe in May 2023.
Our principal operational responsibility is now in the Greater Mana Pools Ecosystem, where the co-management agreement provides for long-term institutional development, professional management and closer coordination across the Zimbabwean component of the landscape.
Work taking place now
- Establishing the governance, management and operational systems for the Greater Mana Pools Ecosystem
- Strengthening ranger deployment, protection and field infrastructure
- Supporting management across Mana Pools National Park and surrounding safari areas
- Improving the information required for ecological, operational and community planning
- Supporting cross-border cooperation between Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Building the long-term financial base required to manage the ecosystem effectively
