Thesis (MPhil (Sustainable Development Planning and Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This is a technical and financial proposal for a large-scale and complex sustainable development project in Zambia. The sustainable development project is the Copperbelt Environment Project (CEP)1. This proposal aims at developing strategies for addressing sustainability problems of CEP. One objective of the proposed strategies is to raise additional funds to support its activities beyond CEP’s initial project-life. The other is to enhance public participation in CEP, especially of political and traditional leaders. CEP is a project of the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) created in 2002 to mitigate historical environmental and social liabilities caused by mining after the privatisation of stateowned mines. Furthermore, CEP is charged with the responsibility to improve compliance of ongoing mining operations through enhanced environmental and social regulation. CEP is faced with three key sustainability problems. The first problem relates to the cessation of CEP activities after the end of its conceptual project life span in 2008. If CEP activities cease without an exit strategy to take care of on-going CEP activities, serious environmental and socioeconomic problems are likely to arise in mining areas. The second sustainability problem relates to the financial deficit of CEP. Less than US $60 million of the US $200 million required has been sourced for CEP activities implying a deficit of about US $150 million. Unless the financial deficit is secured, it is unlikely that most historical environmental liabilities will be addressed. It is also unlikely that environmental and social regulation targets of CEP will be attained by the end of its initial life span. The third sustainability problem relates to inadequate public participation in CEP activities. Although public participation in development programmes is a policy and legal requirement in Zambia, it is however very low in CEP. Traditional and political leaders are not using their offices to advance CEP agenda. A hybrid of participatory research/action research, evaluation research, empowerment evaluation and literature reviews research methodologies is proposed to be used to develop the strategies that will address the above problems. In addition, multiple methods of data collection are proposed to be used, including structured and semi-structured individual and group interviews, questionnaires, documentary sources and analysis, plenary and focus group discussions, personal experience, commissioned expert inputs, websites and participation records. The long-term target of the proposed project is to generate in excess of US $900 million for CEP activities by 2025. The proposed project will also utilise the Community-Based Environmental Protection (CBEP) approach and draw on the South African experience on public participation to build the capacity of target groups to take stewardship of environmental problems in their areas. A detailed implementation plan will be developed to serve as the framework for operationalising the proposed strategies. Existing CEP monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will be used to track the implementation plan. A six-man team headed by a team leader is proposed to execute this project proposal. An activitybased budget including a logical framework, timescales for deliverables, coverage areas, target groups, action planning, project goals, stakeholder analysis, time plans for staff and activity schedules are proposed. Depending on the speed and efficiency with which the project proposal and its strategies are implemented, a sustainable solution to poor environmental management in mining areas of Zambia is possible.