The border between the Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia and the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe runs somewhere in the middle of the mighty Zambezi River. Of course, this construct only exists for us humans, but not for the animals.

The parks on both sides of the river were established in 1983 and 1984 respectively. Unfortunately, Mana Pools in Zimbabwe is still surrounded by so-called hunting blocks such as Hurungwe in the west and Sapi and Chewore in the east. One of these hunting blocks (Sapi) was taken over by our partner Great Plains in 2016 and immediately converted into an area for photographic safaris. Tragically, decades of poaching have decimated the animal populations in Sapi, including iconic animals such as lions, elephants and the endangered black rhino, which has completely disappeared from this landscape.

It is known that not only elephants, but also lions cross the the river and sometimes remain on the islands in the middle of the river. Sadly, visitor to the Sapi Reserve in 2016 found a dead land with few animals that ran in panic in sight of any human. In the last few years, the area has slowly been recovering and the animals are learning that the Sapi area is safe again. However it takes a lot of patience - and money.

We support Conservation Lower Zambezi in Zambia and the Sapi area in Zimbabwe via Great Plains in the hope that more hunting blocks will be converted to sustainable tourism and the animals on both sides of the river can live safely.