The forest are found on rolling hills of sandy soil drained by the Kabompo River of northern Barotseland in Western Zambia, with one area across the border in Angola.

There is a dense undergrowth of creepers and shrub thickets, with mosses carpeting the ground in the denser forests.

The only two endemic species are a mammal Rosevear's striped grass mouse, and a bird white-chested tinkerbird (Pogoniulus makawai).

The forests are particularly rich in birdlife, with nearly 400 species found here, including: the Guttera edouardi kathleenae subspecies of the crested guineafowl, olive long-tailed cuckoo (Cercococcyx olivinus), Ross's turaco (Musophaga rossae), Cabanis's greenbul (Phyllastrephus cabanisi), purple-throated cuckoo-shrike (Campephaga quiscalina), Boulton's batis (Batis margaritae), African crested-flycatcher (Trochocercus cyanomelas), common square-tailed drongo (Dicrurus ludwigii), black-fronted bushshrike (Telophorus nigrifrons), Perrin's bushshrike (T. viridis viridis), olive sunbird (Nectarinia olivacea), forest weaver (Ploceus bicolor) and black-tailed waxbill (Estrilda perreini).

These dry forests stand on infertile sandy soil with little surface water and are therefore uninhabitable and fairly undisturbed, apart from poaching of wildlife.