Zambezi River Basin

have seen the area unchanged over the last decades with a predominant Miombo woodland vegetation type. The Miombo woodlands cover much of central and southern Africa, and are home to about 8 500 plant species, including 300 trees.

Below Victoria Falls, the gradient steepens sharply, the flow accelerates, rapids rise, and the river makes a series of sharp turns for several kilometres (Moore and others 2007). The river then widens forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. As it enters Lake Kariba the river expands dramatically (UNEP 2010).

Approximately 200 kilometres downstreamof the Kariba Dam, the Zambezi River enters Mozambique and flows into Lake Cahora Bassa. Below this, the gradient levels out again as the river crosses the coastal plain and is joined by Shire River. Below the confluence with the Shire River, the Zambezi crosses another area of floodplains before reaching the Zambezi delta and emptying into the Indian Ocean in Mozambique (UNEP 2010).

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