| dc.description.abstract | As scientists, historians and archaeologists continue to uncover, study
and promote access to tangible and intangible cultural heritage, there
are ever increasing challenges that pervade conservation efforts.
Heritage conservation is threatened as the world globalizes and African
economies open up to new realms of growth in the international markets while increased building construction, infrastructural expansion
as well as terrorism destroy existing heritage assets. Kenya in particular prides itself as a prodigious habitat for abundant and various natural and cultural heritage assets including archaeological sites, wildlife,
landscapes and folklores. However, the different forms cultural and
natural heritage take and the complexity of the conservation challenges
are not congealed; their constant and respective evolution requires continuous regeneration of competence, technology and value systems.
Conservators must therefore seek to expand existing principles and
practices in the management of cultural and natural heritage, including
the assessment of values attributed to the heritage, questions of reversibility and replica as well as access and security issues.
Cultural heritage conservation is not one of the subjects that have
been accorded great attention in Kenya over the past century. The editors and contributors aim, however, to highlight and expand conservation studies from the confines of technical and scientific management
expertise into the strata of matters engrained in local populations and
the intrinsic links between communities, and their cultural and natural
environment within the Kenyan legal framework. An in-depth discussion on contradictions in existing laws in Kenya exposes the difficulties
in implementing conservation guidelines. | |
