Travel Guide Liuwa Plain National Park

Very isolated and accessible only from June to November, this small park of 70 km long and 30 km wide has more than one particularity. From a historical point of view, it is one of the oldest wildlife protection areas in the world, which was declared a game reserve by the king of Barotseland, Lubosi Lewanika, in the 19th century. Until 1972, when the Zambian government declared it a national park, it was managed by the Litunga, who used it as his personal hunting ground, with his subjects looking after the animals for him. Even today, and this is another of its specificities, the park is home to more than a hundred villages. In the local dialect, liuwa means "walking stick". Legend has it that a Litunga man planted his walking stick in the middle of the plain, which gave rise to a solitary palm tree that is still visible and remarkable in a landscape characterized by total destitution. Liuwa Plain National Park or Barotse Flood Plain is located in the high flood plains of the Zambezi River, and like the Okavango Delta, fills with water during the rainy season and dries up over the months.The creation of the Liuwa-Plain Mussuma TFCA transboundary park. The park is now twinned with another park on the Angolan side, Mussuma National Park, created in 2010 after the civil war. The park has seen an increasing number of wildebeest and zebra over the years, now a little more protected from poaching. The two entities form a new area now called the Liuwa Plain - Mussuma Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) and covers 14,464 km² and thus allows the famous wildebeest migration. It includes the northern part of the Barotse Plain, between the Lungwebungu and Luanginga Rivers, the Zambezi floodplains, the Miombo rainforests and the Zambezi dry forests. These large plains are flooded annually between December and April. In the southern regions, there are basins that hold their water until the dry season. They are dotted with small islands of trees or clusters of raffia.The indigenous populations. Approximately 430 villages or 20,000 people live in and around Liuwa Plain National Park. They play an important role in the local Barotse culture. In the 19th century, during the time of the Royal Kingdom of Barotseland, members of the community worked in the park as official game wardens. At that time, the "Indunas" had various conservation responsibilities-an institution that continues to exist. The communities practice agriculture with mixed farming methods, while living with wildlife. The people of the area have developed a sophisticated system of resource use rights, including fishing and harvesting of natural resources such as thatch, building poles, and palm fronds. The Liuwa Plain is an area rich in Lozi legends.