African States Parties, Support, Constraints, Challenges and Opportunities for Managing Cultural World Heritage Sites in Africa

Abstract

Government support plays a central role in the nomination of cultural heritage sites to the World Heritage List (WHL) and in the management of sites that are proclaimed as World Heritage Sites. National governments lay down the necessary national policies, strategies for implementation, the legal and institutional frameworks and heritage conservation regulations. They also establish local development plans for the conservation of cultural World Heritage Sites at a local level; they develop management tools, set up and manage the local conservation and they also work with the local communities in and around the sites. In this chapter, we present and discuss reasons why many African States Parties do or do not support the management of their cultural World Heritage Sites. The management issues that many African States Parties grapple with when managing their cultural World Heritage Sites are also explored. While it is shown that there are diverse reasons why many African countries generally fail to manage their cultural World Heritage Sites, it is also demonstrated that the scenario is not all doom and gloom, because some African governments are working very hard towards the safeguarding and appropriate management of their cultural World Heritage Sites.KeywordsAfrican governmentsCultural world heritage sitesNon-Governmental organisationsAfrican states partiesCultural heritage sites