COMMUNITY BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Strengthening Current Approaches in Mozambique 1,2 POLICY BRIEF: October 2016 Andre Aquino,João Fonseca and Robert Mwehe • Clear delimitation is essential for Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Mozambique. • A lack of strategic planning, low government priority and minimal external investments in delimited land are hindering the process of land delimitation and restricting CBNRM. • Current strategies to promote CBNRM have focused extensively on resource revenue redistribution rather than approaches that link resource rights to obligations, community- investor partnerships and enhancing community capacities for effective and sustainable natural resource management. • Sustainable resource management requires an integrated package of interventions that link strategic land delimitation, rural investments and community capacity building. Community Based Natural Resource Management in Mozambique This note first highlights current land use policies rights and open up community land for inclusive and and practices and their effectiveness in creating an negotiated investment, envisioned by the Technical environment for community engagement in resource Secretariat to the Land Commission in 1998. These management. The subsequent section offers possible experiences clearly demonstrate the continuing alternatives to methodologies, either through policy difficulties in linking community land delimitation with reform or reformulation of strategies in community local development initiatives. In contrast to what was resource management. The brief concludes by envisaged, community land is often misconceived linking the significance of land delimitation activities, as land where outside investment cannot take place. community natural resource management strategies Within this logic, community land delimitation is and rural development in Mozambique. seen by some as restricting the availability of land for investment, rather than as creating the basis for Critique of current policy options outside investors to establish win-win partnerships with communities. Mozambique’s rural population (68.1%)3 depends on On the other hand, private productive investments land for subsistence and livelihood. Constitutionally have not been satisfactory. Expectations that private all land is public but, there is simultaneous recognition investors would invest in delimited and certified of the bestowment of land user rights (Direito community land have been realised in only few cases. de Uso e Aproveitamento da Terra-DUATS) to In part, the low level of investor uptake of community communities4. DUATs can be granted either by the land merely reflects the general situation with many State, through continual residence, in good faith, of rural land holdings; relatively few have applied for ten years or more, or communal customary tenure. DUATs and those that have are characterised by In addition DUATs can also be granted to individuals general underuse and a lack of investment. It also and corporate entities through formal requests reflects the overall low levels of investments in rural which imply obligations of development (based on Mozambique. A preliminary assessment of delimited approved exploration plans) and payment of a land land concludes that high agricultural potential is not tax that varies based on location, type of use and necessarily a factor used by NGOs, the main drivers area occupied5. Local communities have no such tax of the programme, to target potential community land obligations. delimitations. Delimitation has arguably not served Securing land tenure to communities through as a comprehensive strategic tool for rural landscape their formalization and issuance of Community development as it was intended in the law. Delimitation Certificates (CDCs) was intended to allow This outcome may be the result of the lack of a investments and private-community partnerships. strategy for identifying and aligning delimitation After 19 years of community land delimitation, it activities with the identification of opportunities for remains difficult to provide an accurate status of its deriving benefits to local communities. This absence implementation and impact. Generally speaking, land of strategic foresight reflects a lack of clarity in delimitation has been slow, and sporadic, with about the exact legal nature of a transfer of a portion of 23% of the country’s land delimited and certified to community land to an investor, or may be due in part communities. In addition, levels of overall support to an information problem and the lack of mechanisms for the process have been relatively low at points in to connect investors with communities whose land is time, reflected by its low priority for the government available for investment. Unfortunately, communities through limited public budget allocations. The NGO are rarely well-informed about the economic sector was left with most responsibility for testing opportunities offered by the rights they have acquired. and piloting this type of delimitation. As a result, relations between the land administration services, investment stakeholders, communities, public authorities and other actors reflect a dichotomous development model (communities vs investors) that currently predominates. This is in stark contrast with the “open border” model, which would secure local 2 of 5 Strengthening Current Approaches in Mozambique Case Study: Mulela and Muzo Communities agroforestry systems etc) and increased access to finance; expose communities to skills that Mulela and Muzo are two communities, both enhance partnerships through investments in and amalgamated from other smaller communities, and management of natural resource; and increase have CBNRM projects: Mulela’s project is premised overall community awareness to the importance on engaging in sustainable wildlife resource of environmental services, laws and regulation utilization and biodiversity conservation for local governing them. development while the Muzo project involves a forest concession. Both projects have not realised their full Going forward, the Mulela and Muzo case study potential resulting from a combination of institutional highlights three main areas requiring attention: weaknesses, low expertise and technological Institutional strengthening through reverting capacities, lack of partnerships and finance, and for resource rights to communities (Mulela), institutional Mulela, a lack of transfer of legal rights over wildlife coordination for all stakeholders involved, and resources. integrating findings from the case studies to action plans on national CBNRM initiatives; effective Recommendations, too, parallel at both project community participation in resource management sites: strengthening community participation and development; and improved community in governance; diversification of livelihood knowledge and governance of existing natural strategies through increased value-chain addition resources and their value. of forest products (non-timber forest products, Box 1: SWOT analysis undertaken in the context leading to high transaction costs of initiatives led of developing CBNRM in Mozambique by national and international institutions; Strengths: • High costs of sustainable management of natural resources (forests and wildlife), particularly in • Progressive legislation devolving rights to absence of valuation of these resources and the resources and sharing benefits from natural ecosystem services (public goods) associated resources. Many communities have been with them; supported in organization to claim rights and make economic use particularly in relation to • Lack of a sustainable exit strategy for the forest and fisheries. supported initiatives once the very short project life ends. Often this happens before local Weaknesses: institutions (decision making and enterprise • State reluctance (or lack of political will) to organizations) are strong enough to develop cede authority over natural resources to local interventions into sustainable businesses. communities seeking access to natural resource Opportunities (see recommendations) rights; Threats: • The conveying of rights over natural resources without fully capacitating local communities to • Limited funding for CBNRM; govern, manage and develop resources under • Recognition of property rights, through DUATs, their jurisdiction; fails to extend to natural resources held on • Limited negotiating power of local people while delimited lands; dealing with third parties; • Limited number of NGOs with long term access • Fragmented interventions at landscape level to funding to invest in long term support of CBNRM. 3 of 5 Community Based Natural Resource Management in Mozambique This lack of capacity is well exemplified with seek concrete benefits to local residents; CBNRM. The evolution of CBNRM since 1997, ii) Institutional coordination: With multiple institutions when the Policy for Development of the Forestry and involved in community land use and developmental Wildlife Sector was approved, indicates significant planning, there is a clear need to have institutional progress in developing policies and legislation, and coordination of various functions undertaken by experimentation of CBNRM on the ground. However, multiple institutions; a number of challenges to progress in CBNRM have been identified (see Box 1 below). These challenges iii) Strategic piloting and methodology development: hinder the potential of CBNRM as a means of creating Testing a wide range of different socio-economic economic benefits that would propel improvement of settings, as well as under a series of different community wellbeing through their active engagement investment drivers to create a critical mass of in managing resources. Rather, current CBNRM information, experiences and lessons to consolidate strategies have devolved into a system that shares methodologies and identify in more detail a future revenues from forests and wildlife. This continued operational and institutional set up for these activities. dichotomy of “communities vs investors” needs to be replaced with a better approach that views CBNRM communities and investors as partners in a venture that guarantees economic benefits for all concerned i) Strengthening the capacity of decentralized parties without detriment to the natural resource base government institutions at provincial and district levels (See Box 2 for an example). to integrate CBNRM in their development strategies and establishing monitoring and technical support; Future of Natural Resource Management in ii) Prioritizing interventions where cost-benefit Mozambique assessments for proposed CBNRM initiatives are promising and where there is potential for Current CBNRM strategies are not sufficient to fully partnerships with actors from the private sector or develop and realise national economic and natural NGO. Community-investor partnerships that capitalize resource development goals. Therefore, an enabling on evaluated natural resources and ecosystem legal, regulatory, procedural, institutional and service services should be promoted; provision environment for land delimitation needs iii) Better balancing rights and obligations through to be fine-tuned; strengthening the legal framework performance-based incentive systems: Provide and institutional capacities at multiple scales (local, financial and other benefits according to agreed-on district, provincial and national). Creating a better sustainable natural resources management goals; balance, and link, between rights and obligations and rights and markets in CBNRM, is critical to the iv) Broadening the current Government focus on realisation of the full potential of natural resource the implementation of the “20 per cent”(Ministerial development in Mozambique. Diploma no 93/2005)6 to the actual implementation of CBNRM where appropriate; and Below are recommendations for land delimitation activities and CBNRM strategies that offer possible v) Harnessing other forms of finance for resource areas of action that would positively further the management, particularly Payment for Ecosystem national agendas in natural resource development Services, with REDD+ being a good opportunity. and community resource management in Mozambique: Land Delimitation i) Delimitations must be planned and implemented more strategically, as part of wider rural development programmes, and implemented not only to secure rights against external threats, but also to explicitly 4 of 5 Strengthening Current Approaches in Mozambique Box 2: Successful CBNRM/CINRM Initiative: from local communities in permanent and season Niassa Carnivores Project (NCP) jobs; and an offer of USD 6,900 to the local Natural Resources Management Committee to invest in The NCP, launched in 2003, has the mission of projects. conserving wildlife, particularly lions and other large carnivores in the Niassa National Reserve Mariri Investimentos strategy integrates rural (NR). One of the villages (Mbamba) has partnered development with conservation goals. This with a private investor-Ratel Trust-to create Mariri objective is implemented through the transfer of Investimentos in the NR’s L5-S concession block. in-kind and financial benefits to Mbamba village In this partnership, the management is entirely predicated on agreed-on conservation goals composed of Mozambicans - 96% being local that focus on land use planning and reduction of residents - with the exception of two managers. illegal activities. This emphasizes the relationship between conservation and development, promotes In 2014, benefits from this partnership included environmental awareness and accountability, and payment of over USD 180,000 in the form of wages, ensures ownership over the good management stipends, and assistance; conservation programs, of natural resources. In this sense, it underscores education, vocational training and employment obligations that come with rights as well as returns of about 600 people; employment of 117 people commensurate to efforts. Conclusion intervention; securing land rights of communities through a comprehensive delimitation programme The placing of land, natural forests and wildlife, and; community capacity building and Community environment, territorial planning and rural Land Use Plans (CLUPs)7 as part of delimitation, development within a single new ministry, MITADER, transforming communities from passive recipients of creates opportunities for reforms and integrated investment into active partners and leaders. strategies for sustainable rural development and This should lead to recognition by key stakeholders landscape management in Mozambique, which and decision-makers that local communities occupy can unlock the capital vested in land and natural and manage most of the land in the country; an resources, and create inclusive and sustainable understanding of how the ‘open border’ allows relationships between different categories of land investors and local people to work together; and a and natural resource users. The Government of reformed land administration. With such political, Mozambique should consider a coherent package legal, policy and regulatory changes, Mozambique of interventions, rather than isolated activities, which would be in a position to fully utilise and manage will increase government revenues while improving sustainably its natural resource base both for and diversifying local incomes leading to robust and national developmental goals and for rural livelihood resilient households. These interventions include: improvement. strategizing and prioritising the scope and areas of Endnotes lands, water sources and areas for expansion. 1 This Brief is a product of the staff of the World Bank. The findings, 5 This taxation does not, however, reflect the relative value of, and the interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this document do not economic activities in, the land in question. Further, the collection of necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, nor does the Institution revenue is poorly coordinated and inefficient. guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. 6 Relates to the transfer of 20% of the value of fees related to the access 2 This brief is based on the “Non Lending Technical Assistance on Land and use forest and wildlife resources, as well as to the undertaking and Community-Based Natural Resources Management” delivered of contemplative tourism in parks and national reserves in favour of by the WB in 2016. Other contributors included Christopher Tanner, communities. In spite of its importance, this transfer has come to be CTConsulting Ltd., Wales, UK, with contributions from Simon Norfolk, wrongfully equated by many, including in the Government, to CBRNM. Isilda Nhamtumbo, Aanabela Fernandez and Raúl Varela.Terra. While mechanisms for the more effective implementation of the Diploma 3 World Bank, 2016 should be developed, CBNRM and the devolution of rights over the management of natural resources to communities in Mozambique offer 4 Defined in Article 1(1) of the Land Law “[a] grouping of families and possibilities that go well beyond this particular income transfer. individuals, living in a circumscribed territorial area at the level of a locality [the lowest official unit of local government in Mozambique] or below, 7 With participation of local communities, Community Land Use Plans which has as its objective as the safeguarding of common interests guide the delimitation process after considering not only the economic through the protection of areas of habitation, agricultural areas, whether feasibility of possible investments, but also the environmental impacts of cultivated or in fallow, forests, sites of socio-cultural importance, grazing various land use practices. 5 of 5 Cover Photos: World Bank, 2017