By ANDREW PHIRI –

LIVINGSTONE Mayor Milford Maambo says Zambia and Livingstone in particular is endowed with a wide range of natural and cultural sites which are under threat.
Mr Maambo said it was for this reason that there is need to equip and train site managers and staff in the best ways of conserving these resources.
He was speaking in Livingstone yesterday during a joint two-day training workshop on sustainable tourism between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Mr Maambo said the workshop was timely against the background of the urgent need to conserve the resources against posterity and make them relevant to poverty alleviation and livelihood sustenance.
“The promotion of sustainable tourism, which among others includes the utilisation of available resources for development without endangering the valuable heritage, is in line with our tourism agenda,” Mr Maambo said.
He said the choice of Livingstone as the venue for the training on sustainable tourism was not accidental as the city was an active model of a sustained tourism, taking into cognizance the Victoria Falls and its associated tourist attractions which attract thousands of tourists every year.
Mr Maambo was hopeful that the outcome of the seminar would chart a new course in the promotion of sustainable tourism development in this destination.
Speaking earlier at the training, National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) chief executive officer Collins Chipote said the training came at a good time when there was need to invest in human resource.
Mr Chipote also said there was need even as these sites were preserved and protected for local people in these sites to have direct benefits.
“Let’s ensure that local people benefit from these world heritage sites just as much as we might want to preserve and conserve them,” Mr Chipote said.
UNESCO France programme officer Peter Debrine, who is one of the workshop trainers, said the training in sustainable tourism was important because the conservation of world heritage sites was a livelihood for people in communities they lived in.