Zambia has ratified more than twenty (20) Global Environmental Conventions that play an important role in influencing the country's policies, laws and actions so as to attain sustainable socio-economic development through the environment and natural resources management. In order for key players in environmental protection and natural resources management including the local communities to acquire basic knowledge and understanding on these conventions, there is need to disseminate issues related to different conventions to which Zambia is a party.

Zambia lies at the heart of the Miombo Ecoregion and it is listed as the World Wide Fund (WWF) Global 2000 Ecoregion because of its high species richness. The Miombo Ecoregion supports important populations of fauna, particularly large mammals. Zambia is floristically diverse and has 8,500 plant species, of which about 54% are endemic. According to WWF-SARPO (2002) there are 26 areas of special biodiversity importance within the Ecoregion. This classification is based on a) occurrence of endemic species; b) high species diversity c) important or globally significant populations and d) incorporating or essential for significant animal investments. However, this rich biodiversity base is seriously being threatened through unsustainable rate of exploitation. The NBSAP states that according to the FAO-UNESCO (1997) classification, the broad soil regions in the Zambezian centre of endemism are characterised by ferrasols in the north, arenosols in the west and acrisols while the rest of the plateau has ferrasols that tend to  towards lithosols on hills and escarpments. Valleys and flood plains have vertisols.

There at least 5,500 vascular species in Zambia (IUCN, 1990).  There are 233 species of mammals, 731 species of birds, 145 species of reptiles and 200 species of fish.

There are also 22 species of antelope. 11 of these are threatened.  There are 19 national parks, 35 game management areas.