ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURE: THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON CULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Abstract

Over the years, discourses on sustainable development have caused intense debate and conflicts around issues to do with the environment and culture. The debates and conflicts have been chiefly a result that development which is environmentally and culturally friendly is practically difficult to achieve. This is because more often than not issues of development conflict with those to do with culture and the environment. This paper is based on the archaeological, environment and/or cultural impact assessment undertaken at Sviba heritage site, south central of Zimbabwe. The study reveals conflicting interests between traditional leadership and the ‘development architectures’- a private company named Econet Wireless- within a cultural landscape which unfortunately is already under ownership dispute. The study reveals that progress of erecting a telecommunication booster by Econet Wireless has been hampered as a result of different conceptions of culture, environment and sustainable development by government institutions, traditional leadership and local communities concerned. This has been so in spite of indications that many people in the studied area are in dire need of mobile network connections. In the light of this situation, the present paper calls for the drafting of a comprehensive sustainable development road map that will enhance development that is friendly to the environmental, cultural, economic and political setting of communities involved.