Cultural heritage management and ownership regime in Island of Mozambique

Since the Independence of Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975, the ownership regime has passed through two main legal phases with distinct socio-economic objectives, entitled as nationalization and alienation (privatization). In order to understand the effectiveness of management strategies, which affects cultural heritage properties, a recent research was undertaken on Island of Mozambique, an island of outstanding architecture, both noble and vernacular, listed as World Heritage since 1991. This paper aims to introduce, present and discuss part of the results, when comparing the patterns of change concerning the threats - general degradation and aggressive development – to the ownership regime. Besides contributing to the growth of knowledge and to the discussion of the role of heritage impact assessments to cultural heritage management, this paper is also expected to help the stakeholders of Island of Mozambique in sharpening their management strategies towards the mitigation of threats affecting their cultural heritage properties