Zambia · ZM

Lusenga Plain National Park

Lusenga Plain National Park is one of Zambia's most remote and least-visited protected areas — a vast plateau wilderness of miombo woodland, open grassland, and riverine forest in Luapula Province, roughly 700 km north of Lusaka. Established in 1972, the park covers about 800 square kilometres along the western bank of the Kalungwishi River, south-east of Lake Mweru. The park's namesake feature is a striking oval plain — a grassland and wetland basin ringed by concentric wooded ridges that give it the look of a giant crater. The result of an ancient volcanic dome eroded over millennia, the plain sits at roughly 1,200 metres elevation and receives 1,500 mm of rain annually, feeding a network of streams and swampy dambos that radiate outward toward the Kalungwishi River to the east and the Luapula River to the west. Lusenga Plain is best known today for its extraordinary birdlife and its status as a genuine frontier for adventurous travellers. The park is part of the Mweru–Tanganyika ecoregion and a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance. Recent conservation investment is rebuilding wildlife populations after decades of poaching and neglect, making this one of Zambia's most promising — and still raw — wilderness experiences.