Zambezi River Basin

In Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, the elephant population exceeds the countries’ carrying capacity,

creating problems of overpopulation and destruction of habitats. For example, Botswana has 106 000

elephants in an environment with an estimated carrying capacity of 50 000. Large elephant populations

negatively affect the recovery of the rhinoceros herd by preventing the animals from using grazing areas

and gaining access to water points.

of the Cape buffalo (

Syncerus cater

). Despite altering the Basin’s flood regime, and causing loss of wildlife, the lake strengthened access to

clean energy, with an installed capacity of 2 075 Mw of hydropower.