Protected areas in Zambia

Protected areas covered 41.3% of the territory of Zambia in 2025.

Measure: Terrestrial and marine protected areas Unit: % of total territorial area Data: 2013 to 2025 Source: World Bank
Zambia, 2025 41.3% % of total territorial area
Change from 2024 0percentage points 2024: 41.3%
World, 2025 17.0% Official aggregate
Position in 2025 10th of 213 See the full ranking

Protected areas in Zambia over time

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Places
2 selected
Zambia World ×

% of total territorial area. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators. Gaps mean no published value; points are not joined across missing years.

Terrestrial and marine protected areas (% of total territorial area), 2013 to 2025
Period ZambiaWorld
2025 41.3% 17.0%
2024 41.3% 15.3%
2023 41.3% 14.9%
2022 41.3% 14.9%
2021 41.3% 14.7%
2020 41.3% 14.8%
2019 41.3% 14.5%
2018 37.9% 14.1%
2017 37.9% 13.5%
2016 38.0% 13.2%
2015 38.0% 12.1%
2014 38.0% 11.9%
2013 38.0% 11.1%

A dash means no value was published for that period.

In short

  • That is unchanged from 2024.
  • Since 2015, when it was 38.0%, the figure has changed by +3.3 percentage points.
  • Among the 213 countries with data for 2025, Zambia has the 10th highest value.
  • The figure for the world in 2025 was 17.0%.

Source and dates

Original producer
UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, World Database on Protected Areas
Distributed by
World Bank, World Development Indicators
Dataset or series code
ER.PTD.TOTL.ZS · dataset details · view at source
Observation period
2013 to 2025 for Zambia
Provider update
8 October 2026
Retrieved
9 November 2026
Published here
9 November 2026
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (per series metadata)
Attribution
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, original data: UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, World Database on Protected Areas