KAZA: The Conservation Area Behind Every Border We Cross
Five countries, one landscape
Look at a safari brochure and you see countries. Look at the ground and you see one landscape with lines drawn across it.
That landscape has a name. The Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area — KAZA — spans roughly 520,000 square kilometres across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. That is about the size of France, and it makes KAZA the largest transfrontier conservation area on earth. The five governments signed the founding treaty in 2011, building on a memorandum from 2006, and brought 36 existing national parks, reserves and community areas under one shared plan.
Every camp we run sits inside it. That is not a marketing line — it is the reason our safaris work the way they do.
Why it exists: animals don’t read borders
The idea behind KAZA fits in one sentence: a fenced park is an island, and islands lose species.
The elephants make the case. The 2022 KAZA elephant survey — the first count coordinated across all five countries — put the population at 227,900 animals, roughly half of all savanna elephants left in Africa. They do not stay put. Herds cross between Botswana and Namibia along the Chobe and the Linyanti, and move north into Angola as security there improves. An elephant can cover tens of kilometres in a day; no park boundary means anything to it.
And the predators need even more room. KAZA holds around 2,300 African wild dogs — more than a quarter of the world population. A single pack ranges over hundreds of square kilometres, which is why wild dogs disappear first when a reserve is cut off. Our guide to telling wild dogs from hyenas explains what makes them so unlike anything else out there.
What connectivity looks like on the ground. Between the formal parks lie community conservancies, forest reserves and wildlife management areas — land where people live and farm, but where wildlife has right of way. These corridors are the actual innovation. Thirty-six protected areas were already there in 2011; what the treaty added was the space between them, and the agreement to manage it jointly.
It is not a single park. There is no KAZA gate and no KAZA ranger. Each country still runs its own parks under its own law. What the five share is a plan: where corridors must stay open, how to count wildlife the same way, how to tackle poaching across borders, and how tourism revenue should reach the communities who live with the elephants.
Five places, two countries, one conservation area. The map above shows them against the real borders, the protected areas and the river system that ties them together.
Namibia — the Zambezi Region. Nkasa Plains Camp sits on a private concession at the edge of Nkasa Rupara National Park, Namibia’s largest protected wetland. Look at the map and you see why the location is unusual: the camp sits in the elbow where the Kwando turns east and becomes the Linyanti, with Botswana on the far bank. This is one of KAZA’s key wildlife corridors, and one of its quietest camps.
Botswana — Khwai and Moremi. O Bona Moremi Safari Lodge stands on the Khwai River, which forms the boundary of Moremi Game Reserve. The land on our side is a community area — exactly the kind of tenure KAZA was built around. Practically, it means night drives are allowed where the reserve forbids them.
Botswana — the mobile camp. The O Bona Explorer moves with the season between Moremi, Savuti and Chobe, which is the old way of doing a Botswana safari and still the best way to follow the water.
Botswana — the Okavango Panhandle. Our two houseboats, Ngwezi and the Okavango Endeavour, work the stretch of river above the Delta where the Okavango still runs as one channel between papyrus banks.
The water is the other half of the story. Rain falling on the Angolan highlands drains into two rivers — the Cubango and the slower, peat-fed Cuito — which meet at the Namibian border and become the Okavango. A third, the Cuando, runs south and changes its name twice: to the Kwando, then, where a fault line turns it east, to the Linyanti and finally the Chobe, which meets the Zambezi at Kazungula. Switch on the water layer in the map and the whole system reads at a glance.
This is why the flood arrives in the dry season. Rain that falls in Angola in January takes months to work its way down. It reaches the Delta and the Linyanti floodplains around the middle of the year — the height of the dry season, when the surrounding country has nothing left. That mismatch is the engine of the whole region: water at its fullest exactly when everything else is empty. Our month-by-month guide works through what that means for a trip.
What it means for your safari
One honest correction before you plan. The KAZA UniVisa is often sold as a five-country pass. It is not. It covers Zambia and Zimbabwe, with a day trip into Botswana through Kazungula. Travel to Botswana and Namibia still means separate entries. Anyone telling you otherwise is repeating a brochure.
What KAZA actually changes for a visitor. Not paperwork — it changes what is out there. Corridors kept open mean elephant herds in numbers you will not see in an isolated reserve, wild dogs with enough range to survive, and floodplains that still flood because the rivers upstream are managed as one system. You feel it as abundance, not as a policy.
And it changes who benefits. Much of the land between the parks is community-managed. When you stay on a concession like Khwai or the Nkasa boundary, the fees are part of why wildlife is worth more alive to the people who live alongside it. That is the whole bet KAZA is making.
Frequently asked questions
Which countries are part of KAZA?
Five: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They signed the founding treaty in 2011, building on a memorandum from 2006, and launched the area in 2012.
How big is KAZA?
Around 520,000 square kilometres — roughly the size of France, and the largest transfrontier conservation area in the world. It brings together 36 national parks, reserves and community conservancies.
Can I travel across KAZA on one visa?
No. The KAZA UniVisa covers Zambia and Zimbabwe, plus a day trip into Botswana via Kazungula. Botswana and Namibia require separate entry. This is the single most common misunderstanding about KAZA.
How many elephants live in KAZA?
The 2022 survey counted 227,900 — about half of Africa’s remaining savanna elephants, and the largest population on the continent.
Is KAZA one big national park?
No. Each country keeps its own parks and its own laws. What the five share is a joint plan for the corridors between them, common wildlife counts and cross-border anti-poaching work.
Where are your camps within KAZA?
Nkasa Plains Camp in Namibia’s Zambezi Region, and in Botswana our Khwai lodge, a mobile camp and two houseboats on the Okavango. The map above shows all five.
Plan it with people who work there
Crossing borders here is normal, not exotic. Because the conservation area is shared, combinations that look ambitious on a map are short hops on the ground — see combining Botswana and Namibia.
Tell us which months you have and we will tell you where in KAZA the water — and the wildlife — will be.
