Friday, 28 February 2014

THE KAFUE NATIONAL PARK By Gilbert Mwale



The Kafue National Park is the largest national park in Zambia, covering an area of about 22,480 km². It is the second largest park in Africa and is home to over 55 different species of animals.
The park is named for the Kafue River. It stretches over three provinces: North Western, Central and Southern. The main access is via the Great West Road from Lusaka to Mongu which crosses the park north of its centre. Seasonal dirt roads also link from Kalomo and Namwala in the south and south-east, and Kasempa in the north.
“The Park has nine Game Management areas (GMAs) that surround it except for two portions of Open Area along parts of the north-eastern and south-eastern boundary. The GMAs cover an area of approximately 45,406 km2 thereby creating a Protected Area of nearly 68,000 km2.” (Zambia Wildlife Authority, 2010)

 History of the Kafue National Park
“Kafue National Park is the oldest and largest National Park in Zambia. It was proclaimed on 28 April 1950 by Government Notice No. 108 of 1950 under the Game Ordinance, Chapter 106 of the Laws of Zambia. Its National Park status was underlined on 25 February 1972 under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the original proclamation was revised on 16 April 1993, in Statutory Instrument No. 58 of 1993 establishing it as National Park No. 11.” (Zambia Wildlife Authority, 2010)

PURPOSE OF KAFUE NATIONAL PARK
The Kafue National Park has four main objectives or purposes which are to conserve the vast area of natural ecosystems which contains diverse wildlife as well as to protect cultural resources and sites. It also provides opportunities for tourism, conservation education and scientific research. It contributes to the socio-economic well-being of the surrounding local communities and Zambian people at large.
The park possesses nationally significant natural or cultural resources making it appropriate for direct management as a National Park instead of alternative protection by other land administering agencies or the private sector.

Animals
Kafue National Park has the greatest diversity of animal species found in any National Park in Zambia. All the large mammals naturally occurring in Zambia have been recorded except for giraffe, tsessebe and black rhinoceros; the latter was once widely distributed but has been extirpated. The diversity of mammals and birds in the Kafue National Park tends to be the major attraction of the Park for tourism. Examples of animals that can be found in the park include;

The African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)
Classified under the family elephantidae, the African elephant is the largest land dwelling mammal. It grows continually throughout its life with the male weighing up to 7 tons and female at 4 tons. They have a lifespan of 50-60 years and a gestation period of 22 months, giving birth to only 1 offspring at a time. Young elephant drink water directly through the mouth but when they grow up the use their trunks instead. An adult elephant can drink as much as 200 litres of water per day.

The African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
This mammal belongs to the family bovidae. It can weigh up to 700-900 kg. The buffalo has a life span of 23 years and gestation period of 11 months giving birth to only 1 offspring. KNP has had a reputation for large herds of buffalo which occur on all the major Kafue river drainages.


Burchell’s Zebra (Equus zebra)
The zebra belongs to family equidae. Its weight ranges from 300-320kg. It has a lifespan of 20 years with a gestation period of 12 months. Their two types of zebra in the Africa that is the mountain zebra and common (Burchell’s) zebra the difference is that the mountain zebra has stripes running up to the legs while the common (Burchell’s) zebra does not. These animals do not have horn and so use kicks to defend themselves.

Carnivores
Since the Park has a large variety of prey species there is a diverse and well represented number of large predators. Lion (Panthera leo), leopard (Panthera pardus), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), wild dog (Lycaon pictus) and side-striped jackal (Canis adustus) are known to occur throughout although information on distribution and densities is scarce. 

 Picture of a spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

Primates
Yellow baboon (Papio cynocephalus) is widely distributed and Chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) is recorded in the southern part of the Park only. Vervet monkey (Cercopithecus pygerythrus) is widely distributed as are the bush baby (Galago crassicaudatus) and night ape (Galago moholi).

CHALLENGES OF KAFUE NATIONAL PARK
Wildfire
The park had experienced frequent and unplanned fires since its prclaimation. The fires were usually caused by human activities namely poaching, drying fish and honey gathering.
Natural Disasters and Climate Change
Rarely, extreme weather conditions such as heavy torrential rain and extended drought can cause local flooding and heat waves with associated threats to the public. There is clear evidence that both natural and human-induced climate change is having an effect on global climate, with associated impacts on the environment and human welfare.

Park Boundary
KNP boundary is approximately 1000km. This boundary has not been cleared for more than two decades and signposts and beacons do not adequately show the boundary. Some problems associated with this issue are the settlements made by some local people, hunting in the park and fires that spread into the park from the outside.

Illegal off take of the Wildlife Resource
Illegal off take of the wild animals in this park had reached alarming levels in 1998 (ZAWA, 2004). Both subsistence and commercial illegal off take of wild animals took place in the park. The latter was the most serious as poachers used both sport and military weapons targeting the large animals. There was also the use of wire snares in poaching.

Tourism
Despite the great size of the park, which is renowned for its high diversity of fauna species and other features of interest, tourism has not developed to its potential. The construction of infrastructure and facilities has not been appropriately developed. The park has not been sufficiently promoted both locally and internationally. Some of the problems affecting tourism development in the park include lack of the tourism development plan, poor accessibility to and within the park, poaching reports, low animal population densities, lack of information and interpretative facilities, non-celebrity of the park and other factors such as poor communication.

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