Bangweulu means 'the place where the water meets the sky'. The Great Bangweulu Basin, incorporating the vast Bangweulu Lake and a massive Wetland area, lies in a shallow depression in the center of an ancient cratonic platform, the North Zambian Plateau.

The area is divided into 3 main habitats, open water to the North West (near Samfya), huge swamps in the middle and around the southern and eastern fringes, seasonally flooded grass plains. It is particularly this latter habitat and the swampy Lukulu river flowing through it which are of interest to visitors. They support an incredible diversity of water-birds and plains-birds including the Shoebill and are home to massive herds of the Black Lechwe.

Elephant, Buffalo, Tsessebe, Reedbuck, Oribi and Sitatunga are also adapted to life in this wetland environment. The papyrus swamps along the Lukulu river are also the breeding ground of the Shoebill, a massive grey, do-do like bird found nowhere else in the sub-region. Bangweulu is one of the best places in the world to see Shoebills in the wild, and at the right time of year, no visitor leaves disappointed.

The prehistoric and vulnerable shoebill population is growing since African Parks started managing the park in 2008. Fish stocks have significantly increased due to an annual three-month fishing ban; the implementation of sustainable harvesting has allowed the endemic Black lechwe population to significantly increase to 50,000 animals in the last decade; and cheetah were reintroduced at the end of 2020 after a one hundred year absence.