The Middle Zambezi Biosphere Reserve (established 2010) is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

located along the

Zambezi River The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

in the Zambezi Valley of

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. The reserve consists of

riverine A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

and terrestrial

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s unique to the subcontinent. Among threatened species found in the valley are the

black rhino The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namib ...

(''Diceros bicornis''), the painted wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), and the

nyala The lowland nyala or simply nyala (''Tragelaphus angasii'') is a spiral-horned artiodactyl antelope native to Southern Africa. The species is part of the family Bovidae and the genus '' Tragelaphus'' (formerly placed in the genus ''Nyala''). It ...

(''Tragelaphus angasii''). The flora consist of Colophospermum/

Combretum ''Combretum'', the bushwillows or combretums, make up the type genus of the family Combretaceae. The genus comprises about 272 species of trees and shrubs, most of which are native to Tropics, tropical and southern Africa, about 5 to Madagascar ...

Terminalia Terminalia may refer to: * Terminalia (festival) Terminalia () was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between propert ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

and the Zambezi riparian forest. At Mana Pools, it comprises the only flood plain ecosystem left in the Middle Zambezi. , the total human population is about 40,600, with the major population in the urban area in the Biosphere Reserve and the CAMPFIRE buffer zones. The core zones have only Park staff people, while the safari areas contain less than 50 people at any time, comprising mainly sport hunters and their hosts. Land Management units comprise the two core areas and 11 buffer zone areas.

Sources

{{free-content attribution , author = UNESCO , title = UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory , publisher = UNESCO , documentURL = http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/africa/zimbabwe/middle-zambezi/ , License statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/world-network-wnbr/wnbr/ , licence = CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

References

Biosphere reserves of Zimbabwe