Provisions for community participation in heritage management: case of the Zambezi Source National Monument, Zambia

Abstract

Effective community participation is a topical issue in protected areas and heritage management. Community participation initiatives are considered to have great capacity to enhance conservation and provide community benefits. However, many previous studies have indicated that in spite of the acclaimed potential, there are minimal levels of community participation in practice. Legislation, policy and institutional provisions can play an important role in enhancing community participation by serving as foundations upon which practices are built. This study aims to examine the provisions for community participation in heritage management at the Zambezi Source National Monument (ZSNM) in Zambia. The results based on content analysis of the key ZSNM-related documents show that there are no provisions for community participation in the Zambia Heritage Act. While the Zambia Heritage Policy and the ZSNM Management Plan have some provisions for community participation, they are largely not harmonised or consistent with each other. Furthermore, when compared with the conceptual framework adapted for this study, the majority of the provisions within the key ZSNM-related documents do not indicate intentions to facilitate effective community participation.