Exploring the politics of luzibo kusangana The potential of Tonga local, integrated and hybrid knowledge for equitable landscape approaches in Southern Zambia

Landscape approaches – a negotiated form of landscape governance mobilising landscape actors to discuss and reach consensus on trade-offs between competing land uses and development-conservation goals – involve interactions between different knowledge systems. Based on a case study in Southern Zambia, this thesis examines what role local knowledge plays in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, how it evolves in the interactions with practitioner and scientific knowledge, how knowledge integration for conservation and natural resource management is shaped in practice and say local knowledge holders have in knowledge interactions and decision-making in multistakeholder platforms. Collectively, these insights answer the question: How do local knowledge and practices and their integration and hybridisation with other knowledge systems contribute to the implementation of integrated landscape approaches for conservation and natural resource management in Kalomo District, Zambia? The author combines systematic literature reviews with the analysis of empirical data collected through an innovative combination of photovoice and walking interviews. Based on the findings, the author advocates more equitable knowledge sharing and co-production in landscape approaches and multistakeholder platforms, based on greater authority and validation of Indigenous and local knowledge in landscape approaches, a decolonial perspective, and attention to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.