EXPEDITIONS
This decade is our last chance to save some of the most critical ecosystems along the Great Spine, part of the architecture of the first continent.
The Great Spine of Africa holds the headwaters of the continent’s major river basins – the Okavango, Zambezi, Congo and Nile - complemented by the Niger, Chad, Orange and Limpopo River Basins. A patchwork mosaic of interconnected river basins, they bind plants, wildlife and people to ancient landscapes set between rivers, rift valleys, mountains, deserts and coastal plains.
Central to this collaborative effort will be a series of expeditions, which aim to complete self-propelled source navigations of the Zambezi, Congo and Nile rivers this decade. This initiative draws a narrative that connects the Angolan Highlands to the Bongo Massif range of north-eastern Central African Republic. This will be a 45,000km journey across remote watersheds of Africa's major rivers, assessing the state of their catchments and starting comprehensive ecological and hydrological surveys and documentation from source to sink.
ZAMBEZI
WILDERNESS PROJECT
Luangwa
Kafue
Kariba
Lower Zambezi
Cahora Bassa
Zambezi Delta
DESCENT OF THE NILE
Ruvubu (Burundi)
Kagera (Tanzania)
Ruvyironza (Burundi)
INTO THE CONGO
Chambeshi
Luapula
Lufubu
UPCOMING EXPEDITIONS
ANGOLA
Cuanza
Cuanavale
Tempue
ZAMBEZI WILDERNESS PROJECT
Through the Lungwevungu megatransect series of expeditions in 2022 and 2023 the team completed an unparalleled baseline understanding of the Upper Zambezi system in Angola and Zambia. The Lungwevungu megatransect demonstrated that the Lungwevungu is the primary, most important source of the mighty Zambezi River, usurping the currently recognised source - a marshy bog near Kalene Hill in the northwestern Zambia Highlands. Across two expeditions we travelled 1,030km over 40 days in seven traditional dug-out canoes from the source in the Angolan Highlands to the confluence with the Zambezi River in Zambia. We subsequently explored the Zambezi River from its source to Victoria Falls, travelling 1,488km in specially designed kayaks and later canoes designed for portage around rocky rapids and waterfalls.
Impact: Identifying the real source of the Zambezi River has profound geopolitical implications. These river baselines have demonstrated that the Zambezi River is far more resilient to the long-term impacts of climate change than previously understood. This research and the resultant advocacy and community engagement will support the protection of the eastern watersheds of the Angolan Highlands Water Tower covering an area of 150,000 sq. km.
In 2023, six expeditions were conducted on the Zambezi basin. These efforts will be expanded in 2024 with a view to completing the bulk of the Zambezi expeditions by mid-2025 as we reach the river’s end at the Indian Ocean. Our journey thus far has taken the team as far as Livingstone and through 2024 we will go beyond Mosi-oa-Tunya (“the smoke that thunders") and through the lower Zambezi and great dams of Kariba and Cahora Basa as we follow the Zambezi all the way to its delta in Mozambique. In addition to the main stem of the Zambezi, a number of expeditions are planned in its key tributary basins of Kafue and Luangwa, areas of rich biodiversity, critical wetland ecosystems and significant human and infrastructure pressures. Over the course of 12 – 15 expeditions in the next two years we aim to provide the most complete and overarching baseline assessment of the entire Zambezi system.
INTO THE CONGO
The Congo Basin exceeds 4 million sq. km, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the largest country therein. However, the Congo River’s vast catchment area reaches into Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and more. The northern extremities of the Great Spine of Africa encircles the Congo Basin. Within the watersheds of the basin, the primary rivers provide a network of corridors to access the depths of the Congo’s landscape. Travelling the larger rivers opens up potential for an integrated narrative, discovering and documenting its riparian biodiversity and landforms.
The Cassai “Source of the Congo” expedition in 2023 demonstrated that the source of the Munhango River is the primary, most important source of Africa’s second largest river by discharge (after the Congo River itself). The expedition travelled 754km over 39 days in seven specially designed canoes from the Munhango source in the Angolan Highlands to an extraction point 130km from the border with DRC where the river becomes the “Kasai”.
Impact: Identifying the real source of the Cassai River as the Munhango River has important conservation implications in the Angolan Highlands Water Tower in order to further expand the protected area of the eastern watersheds by 50,000 sq. km. This first ever scientific baseline of the upper reaches of the Cassai has significant hydrological and biological importance. Downstream the effects of land use change and climate change are already having drastic impact through flooding. Understanding and protecting these upper reaches is critical to maintaining a degree of climate resilience in the system.
In 2024 the Great Spine of Africa team will be working extensively along the Congo-Zambezi water tower covering areas of extremely high endemism and importance to overall water security on the continent. Rivers such as the Chambeshi, the Luapula, the Lufubu and the Kalungwishi form part of an exciting and critically important exploration and baseline research into the southern sources of the Congo.
DESCENT OF THE NILE
The central tip of the Great Spine of Africa sees rivers forming and flowing into the White Nile and as this great river makes its way north it forms the impenetrable Sudd Swamps, one of the largest unprotected wetland wildernesses. With an area that can grow to over 130,000 sq. km in the flood season this maze of floating papyrus has stood for centuries as a block to the route south for traders and explorers alike.
Sadly, this great swamp wilderness, a critical breeding site for Africa’s wetland birds, is under extreme threat. Multiple factors, including the loss of mega-herbivores, plastic build-up, sediments from mining and man-made structures has led to flooding and habitat destruction within the Swamp. This wetland system is critical not only to the local communities and vast herds of antelope and breeding birds who directly rely on it but also for the supply of freshwater to hundreds of millions of people downstream in Sudan and Egypt.
Over the next 12 months our expeditionary and conservation work in conjunction with African Parks and the government of South Sudan, will shine a light on the environmental investment opportunity in the Sudd Swamps. We urgently need to highlight what is at stake, catalysing global awareness and action within the landscape.
Commencing in the highlands of Rwanda and Burundi in 2024, we will be following the Kagera, Ruvubu and Nyabarongo Rivers as they lead into Lake Victoria and then flow out of Uganda as the White Nile. Our baseline surveys and datasets will inform critical conservation decisions and help develop plans to protect these resources while meeting the needs of developing nations.
