Conclusions: Sustainable Development and African Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management

Abstract

When hidden in the dark corners of global scholarship and used sporadically at national and community levels, African cultural heritage resources become illusive, non-traceable and at most irrelevant, a situation that makes them vulnerable. This book brought out aspects of cultural heritage resources that give them a vantage point in conservation theory and practice. To achieve this, discussions of the diverse topics are anchored within a theme of sustainability. The book shows that sustainability in cultural heritage resources management is an aggregate of assessment of all the chapters in the book as follows: environment and historic environment, national and international legal framework, politics of the past, community-based conservation, cultural heritage interpretation, standard setting in cultural heritage (certification), cultural heritage tourism development and mainstreaming of human development aspects.