Local Communities’ Ownership of Tourism Enterprises in Lupande Protected Area, Zambia

Abstract

The study investigated the entry barriers to local communities’ ownership of tourism enterprises in Zambia. Lupande Game Management Area, in Eastern Province, was utilized as a case study. The primary objective of the study was to examine the entry barriers to ownership of tourism enterprises in Zambia.  It employed a qualitative research methodology as the primary research approach. Significant study findings were that the local community members’ income, education, skills, and capacities were so inadequate that most did not own tourism enterprises. The proportion of ownership of tourism enterprises was such that over 95% were owned by foreign and external investors, and only less than 5% were owned by local investors, primarily domiciled in urban areas. Chronic institutional challenges in the country’s Game Management Areas (GMAs) were part of major barriers to community ownership of tourism enterprises. Lack of devolved collective rights over natural resources such as wildlife and forests to local communities and weaknesses in local management institutions related to their performance as collective, community-level natural resource governance are part of the most significant barriers. The law does not provide for communal ownership of land either. To promote local communities’ ownership of tourism enterprises in protected areas, there is a need for existing unsupportive legal, policy, and institutional frameworks to be replaced with supportive and favourable ones.