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"Mozambique, like other countries in southern Africa, has been experiencing new approaches to resource use and access, especially as far as the rural community rights are concerned. The forestry sector polices, after independence, went through various stages of policies. First, the focus was on production plantation (late 70s) and state control over the processing industry through nationalizations. During the second phase, from the late 80s to the early 90s, agroforestry systems were being advocated and the aim was to get the users to assist the government in its reforestation strategy. The new paradigm places an emphasis on management of natural resources with community involvement (second half of the 90s). Despite the changes in policy framework and approaches, one common question that arose, which in fact may have dictated the failure of some of the strategies, is the question of resource tenure. In Mozambique, the State owns the land and its resources, having the right to transfer the user rights to various stakeholders. The communities have certain privileges in the new policy and legal framework (land as well as forestry and wildlife). However, the question remains, how far can the community go in exercising those rights: recognition of customary laws, delimitation of community land, potential for having forest concessions, potential for negotiation with the private sector and others etc.? Is the delimitation of land as stated in the Land Law a step towards excludability? If so, who is in fact being excluded: the neighboring communities or the private investor? Who controls the resources and the decision-making? Furthermore, community-based natural resources management is one of the strategies for achieving the social objective of the Forestry and Wildlife Policy (1997) which recognizes community participation and benefit sharing as a condition for sustainable use and management of the resources. Is there a real provision for control of the resources by the users so as to derive the benefits? This and other aspects of the current policy and legal framework are discussed in this paper, especially focusing on the issue of private tenure of agricultural land, trees, etc., and the collective tenure of common pool goods such as forests and grazing land." |
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