The Contested Floodplain explains how institutional change in the African floodplain wetlands of Zambia (Kafue Flats) caused the area's resource management to fail. This work combines New Institutionalism approaches (predicated on notions of power and ideology) with political ecology and findings from local ecological studies, extending its appeal to scholars in African and environmental studies. It includes an in-depth social anthropological analysis of agro-pastoral and fishermen communities and also a foreword by Dr. Elizabeth Colson.