Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa Policies, incentives and options
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2.3Contribution of the forestry sector to poverty reductionAs a recent study commissioned by the USAID office in Mozambique to the Confederation of Mozambican Trade Associations (CTA)14 confirms, Mozambique has an abundance of natural forests. According to this study, natural forests cover an estimated 20 million hectares, or 24 percent of the total country. Excluding the informal sector, the forestry sector in Mozambique provides direct employment for approximately 200,000 people. It accounts for about 10 percent of industrial production and contributes about 1 percent of GDP. This figure excludes fuelwood, and other timber and non-timber forest products that are directly consumed by the rural population or sold in the informal market. In 2004 exports from the sector amounted to US$30 million, approximately 2 percent of total export earnings. The sector earns the government of Mozambique approximately US$6 million per year in royalties on logs harvested and, with opening up of this sector leading to greater competition, these rents could be increased considerably. It is worth highlighting that the figures indicated above include only the forest products and services that enter the formal market. Several products that are handled through the informal markets are not accounted for. For example, it is estimated that the town of Beira consumes more than 5 million bags of charcoal (50 kg each) per year, but of these fewer than 200 000 bags were licensed (Serra and Zolho, 2003). Further examples of products that do not enter formal markets abound. These include building materials, household utensils, food and medicinal plants; which together significantly increase the real value of the contribution of the forestry sector. Royalties and taxes accruing from concessions constitute a source of income for communities. Reimbursement of this dividend is a statutory requirement as per Ministerial Directive 93/2005, and is pegged at 20 percent of the licensing rates paid by the forest operator to the state. This legal statute will be discussed later in the paper. However, eligibility of communities to benefit from this is not a straightforward matter, as the communities are first required to constitute a representative committee registered in the district administrative post. This committee is tasked with managing funds, including opening a bank account on behalf of the community. The committee, as the legal entity recognised by the state and the representative of communities, is also expected to present reports of activities funded by the income, together with associated accounts of income and expenditure. The registration requirements for communities to benefit from the above royalties are too stringent and constitute a major bottleneck, restricting communities from accessing benefits from resources that occur in their areas. For example, out of a total of 700 communities involved in community management projects in the whole country, only 37 have formed local committees, whilst a paltry 17 communities have satisfied all the requirements, with only one having received the statutory 20 percent royalty. The bottlenecks mainly arise from constraints related to the formation of the committees and openings of community bank accounts as well as the relatively low financial incentives (Pear Tree et al., 2005). 3Legal and Institutional Framework for CBNRMIn 1997, Mozambique adopted a Policy and Strategy for Management of Wildlife and Forestry, through Cabinet Resolution Number 8/97 of April 1. This document sets some principles for wildlife and forestry management which include: (a) conserving basic resources, including biological diversity; (b) involving people who are dependent on forestry and wildlife resources in the planning and sustainable use of such resources; and (c) ensuring that communities benefit from wildlife resources. Similarly, the Wildlife and Forestry Law adopted in 1999 recommends integrated management of natural resources that ensures effective participation of local communities, associations and the private sector. It furthermore establishes that the involvement of the private sector in natural resource management should aim at furthering local community development. Certain events stand out as epochal in the evolution of CBNRM. These include the end of authoritarian systems of governance and the advent of peace ushered in by the political settlement under the Rome accords, leading to the crafting of a draft constitution in 1990. A new constitution was to emerge out of this draft in 2004, with land considered as a foundation for CBNRM since the constitution recognized customary rights to land and land management. Subsequent developments within the legislative arena that enhanced the shift towards community based management were the enactment of a national Land Law in 1997, and of a Wildlife and Forestry Law in 1999. Although the general thrust of these developments reinforced the evolution of CBNRM, each law had its own enabling and disenabling features, which are considered next. 3.1The constitutional recognition of community rights over natural resourcesAs in many other African countries, Mozambique’s supreme law vests custodianship of land in the state, with the ownership, management and administration of such land devolved to a variety of other stakeholders including agencies of the state, the private sector, and local communities under customary arrangements. The principle of state custodianship is clearly enshrined in the 2004 constitution15, a revision of the 1990 constitution, which maintains that natural resources in the soil, sub-soil, internal waters, the territorial sea, the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone, are state property, with the state determining the conditions for their use by the citizens. Although the constitution vests custodianship of land in the state such custodianship has an enabling effect for rural communities in that the state, through the constitution, recognizes and protects community land rights acquired by inheritance and by virtue of community tradition and peaceful occupancy of such areas. The only exception to this principle applies in relation to areas legally reserved for public interest purposes, as is the case of nature conservation areas, or areas already legally given to another person or entity16. The 1990 constitutional setting was seen as containing a pro-poor philosophy and a strong statement of the state’s social responsibility towards the rural people who constitute the majority of the Mozambican population (Negrão, 2002). In fact, the role of the state, as indicated by the constitution, was not only to determine the conditions for land use and management but also to prevent the emergence of perverse sets of land rights that create situations of dominance or privilege that jeopardize the majority of the citizens (CRM 1990, Article 47.3). According to Negrão (2002), the constitutional recognition of community land rights independently from formal titles has provided a high sense of protection to the majority of the rural people for whom land continues to be the only source of subsistence and income. Despite the fact that community land rights did not automatically imply rights for commercial use of land and other natural resources, the recognition of rights represented a major achievement for those who advocated the need of increased security of community tenure rights. This philosophy has also had a great influence on the content of the 1997 Land Law, as will be demonstrated. It is in this context that the conceptual and practical aspects of community management of forest resources are analyzed and the relationship between the state and local communities discussed. |