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Abstract
Wetlands are a key livelihood resource in southern Africa. Historically they have been managed using local knowledge systems, but these systems have in many instances been undermined by colonial and postcolonial legal requirements. The IUCN's Ramsar initiative, supported by organisations such as BirdLife International and the WWF, seeks to protect wetland resources. This qualitative study examined the political ecology of the Kapukupuku and Waya areas of the Lukanga wetlands in Zambia, designated a Ramsar site. This designation has given rise to competing ‘narratives’ by politicians and local community leaders over how Lukanga should be managed and used, and the resulting conflict is threatening its sustainability. The paper warns that the various parties' arguments are value-laden and that power asymmetry threatens to exclude poor local communities. Policy must take power interests into account to ensure that developments in the name of the poor really do benefit the poor.
Notes
1Details from ‘Kapiri Mposhi District Profile’, undated draft report obtained by the author from the offices of the Kapiri Mposhi District Council.
2The Zambian Government has been offering free agricultural inputs to small-scale farmers through the Fertiliser Support Programme (Ministry of Finance, Citation2006). The main target for this programme has been the poor and the low income earners.
3‘Kapiri Mposhi District Candidate Sites with Economic Development Potential’, undated draft report obtained by the author from the offices of the Kapiri Mposhi District Council.
4This seems to have been a ploy by local political party activists to enlist support for their candidate. Levy Mwanawasa went on to win the elections and no one was evicted from Lukanga.
