Development Cooperation and Sustainable Tourism in Mozambique: Territorial Systems and Cultural Heritage in the Zinave National Park

The paper presents the existing relationship between development cooperation, environmental policies and sustainable tourism in Mozambique, analyzing the specific case of Zinave National Park (PNZ). By adopting an approach that investigates the socio-territorial configurations and the traditional knowledge of African communities [Turco, 2002], we want to prove that the knowledge of territorial systems is crucial for the management of environmental cooperation projects, particularly for the promotion of sustainable tourism activities, in order to preserve cultural heritage and promote local development. In this perspective, the PNZ is an interesting case study because it is going through a phase of conservative and tourism planning, supported by the Ministry of Tourism of Mozambique, two Italian NGOs (CeLIM and LVIA) and some international organizations, in order to promote a community conservation. Applying a participatory research method, called SIGAP Strategy [Casti, 2006], based on field research and the involvement of local actors, we will discuss the results obtained during the fieldwork carried out in the PNZ, in order to reconstruct the territorial structures existing within the Park. This is shown using the participatory mapping [Burini, 2010] which could be the base of a GIS community mapping system able to express and communicate these values, to implement the process of participation of populations to the decision-making process, promoting the sustainable development at a local level.