Isangano

Isangano National Park covers approximately 840 square kilometres of wetland and miombo woodland in Zambia's Northern Province, on the northern margin of the Bangweulu Wetlands^[1]. A small proportion of the park is permanent swamp beside its three main rivers: the dambo of the Lukutu River forms the main western boundary, the Lubansenshi River flows through the park, and the swamp and dambo floodplain of the Chambeshi River forms the south-eastern boundary^[1]. The park has no visitor facilities, and its remote location makes access and management difficult^[1]. Illegal settlement, deforestation and poaching have left game animals scarce, but the park is still rich in birdlife^[1].

Over 300 bird species can be seen in Isangano, some of them seasonal visitors because they are migratory or are water birds that depend on flooding^[1]. Game animals that can still be seen include black lechwe, reedbuck, oribi, sitatunga, tsessebe, elephant, buffalo, crocodile, hippo, zebra, hartebeest, roan antelope, eland, bushbuck and warthog, but none of them is common, because of illegal settlement, deforestation and poaching^[1]. The prime wildlife areas are the seasonally inundated dambos of the river floodplains, especially along the Lukutu, and the Bangweulu floodplain extending to the south-west, particularly in the flood season^[1].

Isangano's vegetation is dominated by miombo woodland — the Brachystegia-Julbernardia-dominated savanna woodland that covers vast areas of central Africa. This ecosystem is characterized by a relatively closed canopy of deciduous broad-leaved trees that leaf out spectacularly red and pink before the rains (known as 'false spring'), and an understory of grasses and forbs. Nearly half the park is slightly higher dryland covered in miombo woodland that does not usually flood, mainly in the north and centre, between the Lubansenshi and Chambeshi rivers, and on Minswa Island in the far west; except on the island, the miombo is interspersed with headwater dambos in shallow depressions^[1]. The rest is wetland: dambos in the seasonally inundated floodplains of the rivers, especially the Lukutu, and permanent swamp, including a lagoon and swamp system with about 10 km² of open water just above the Lubansenshi–Chambeshi confluence in the far south of the park^[1]. The miombo ecosystem of central Zambia has high levels of endemic plants adapted to its nutrient-poor, fire-maintained soils.

The terrain is very flat: the average elevation is about 1,200 metres, with less than 40 metres of relief across the park^[1]. Its three main rivers, the Lukutu, Lubansenshi and Chambeshi, flow from northeast to southwest^[1].

Isangano experiences the classic plateau climate of central Zambia — a pronounced wet season from November to April when the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) brings most of the park's average annual rainfall of about 1,300 mm, and a long dry season from May to October; the floodplains are at their fullest in April and at their driest in November–December^[1].

The Northern Province of Zambia is homeland to the Bemba people, one of Zambia's largest ethnic groups, who practice shifting cultivation (chitemene) of cassava, millet, and sorghum in the miombo woodland. Traditional hunting and fishing from the Chambeshi River have been important livelihood activities. Isangano was created as a game reserve in Luwingu District in 1957, before Zambia's independence in 1964, and was declared a national park in 1972^[1].

Isangano was created as a game reserve in Luwingu District in 1957 and declared a national park in 1972^[1]. It then declined through illegal settlement, deforestation and poaching, and through a lack of funds for conservation management^[1]. Illegal settlement in the park has been a public issue since at least 2007, despite court orders, government policies and debates in the National Assembly of Zambia, and it has led to questions about whether the park should be degazetted^[1].

Isangano has no visitor facilities, and its remote location makes access difficult^[1]. Its main interest is its birdlife: over 300 species can be seen, including migrants and water birds that depend on the seasonal floods^[1]. The landscape is dominated by the river floodplains, notably the Lubansenshi's swamp, about 40 km long and averaging 1 km across, with multiple channels, meanders and lagoons, and the lagoon and permanent swamp system just above the Lubansenshi–Chambeshi confluence^[1].

Isangano has no visitor accommodation, entry gates, park offices, game scout posts or staff housing. Its only road access is a dirt road from Luwingu District, which leaves the Kasama–Luwingu highway at Mumana Lupando and follows the Lukutu River to enter the park about 125 km from the turnoff. Boats can reach the park on the Chambeshi River from the village of Mbati, 48 km from the Kasama–Mpika highway. There are no airfields in the park; the nearest airport with scheduled flights is Kasama Airport, 150 km to the north-east. Private tourism companies based outside the park offer guided walking, driving and boat safaris when water levels and road conditions allow^[1].

Isangano declined through illegal settlement, deforestation and poaching and a lack of funds for conservation management^[1]. Satellite imagery shows slash-and-burn chitemene gardens and small subsistence fields in all areas of the park's miombo, and villages strung out along bush paths at the edges of the Lubansenshi floodplain^[1]. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife cannot by itself evict and resettle illegal settlers on that scale: district and provincial government and national agencies such as the Department of Resettlement have to be involved^[1]. The settlement issue has been raised in the National Assembly of Zambia on a number of occasions and has led to questions about whether the park should be degazetted^[1].