Discussion to update Zambia’s World Heritage Tentative List held

A virtual meeting was organised on 7 April 2021 to deliberate on the revision of the of Zambia’s World Heritage Tentative List. Zambia’s Tentative List was last updated over a decade ago in 2009 and has only 7 sites that are not fully representative of Zambia’s rich heritage. Participants noted that stakeholder mapping and engagement, including capacity building of relevant stakeholders and partners to ensure that all have the relevant basic information about the World Heritage Convention and Tentative Lists. The main output of the meeting was a recommendation that the State Party should consider the establishment of a technical team to elaborate a work plan for the revision process. The work plan will be shared with UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies (IUCN and ICOMOS) for their review and inputs.

In addition to the National Heritage Conservation Commission, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies, other stakeholders were mentioned as important stakeholders to the technical team (non-exhaustive list): regional and local stakeholders (authorities, communities), academic and research institutions (University of Zambia), non-governmental partners (African Parks, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Kasanka Trust).

During the meeting, the State Party indicated that while there has been minimum progress to consider revising and updating the country’s Tentative List, there has been a general understanding that the list is not up to date considering existing knowledge and interests for future nominations. The gap analyses by the African World Heritage Fund and IUCN had also referred to potential sites to consider. IUCN has also indicated the importance of specific types of sites, such as wetlands. Several sites of possible interest were mentioned, such as Luangwa Valley.

Members of the National Heritage Conservation Commission, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and UNESCO attended the meeting.