Managing natural resources to benefit poor communities in Mozambique

Since 1975, Mozambique has been moving from centralised natural resources management to models where more power is held by communities. In rural areas, Community-Based Natural Resource Management is the strategy expected to meet the joint aims of conservation and poverty reduction. In theory, communities with land rights will use resources sustainably and increase benefits to their livelihoods. In practice, however, the poorest people do not always see any change.

Research from the Sustainable Livelihoods in Southern Africa group, UK, describes one such initiative at the Derre Forest Reserve in Mozambique. Access to healthcare, education, and markets is low, levels of poverty are high and there is a strong reliance on natural resources. Increasing and improving income-generating activities here is vital to reducing poverty.  This will require improved access for local people to forest resources.

Allowing subsistence access to resources is not enough. Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) should include five ‘pillars’:

• decision-making power  and strong community institutions
• resource ownership
• access to funds to invest in enterprise development
• access to technology that will add value to the natural resources
• access to markets.

The Derre Forest Reserve is a Protected Area (PA). It is under government rule and local residents have very limited rights to use resources. Other communities that live beyond the PA border, meanwhile, can get land certificates that recognise their rights to resources.

Discussions with stakeholders in Derre revealed that:

• Most people rely on agriculture. Some cash crops exist, but private control on seeds and crop buying means that incomes are very low.
• Although commercial harvesting inside the PA is not permitted, forest products are often collected illegally.
• Income-generating activities, such as beekeeping, cash cropping, blacksmithing and carpentry, have significant potential to increase incomes. Outside assistance is needed to help develop these skills and to increase access to markets.
• Institutions and social networks already exist that can be used more effectively. These include a project helping people to develop carpentry and beekeeping skills.
• One group, who hold negotiating power with outside NGOs and the government, currently represents the community. This group is not fully inclusive, and it is regarded by poorer members of the community as only working for the elite.

There is high potential for CBNRM to succeed. However, institutional arrangements need to be revised for genuine equity and inclusion to exist. The research outlines four challenges for Derre and its residents:

• The rights of the people living in the reserve need to be defined. Current inequality between those living inside and outside the reserve must be resolved. This can be achieved by redefining the boundaries, or even removing PA status.
• The community need to fully understand their rights. There needs to be greater provision of information by the government and NGOs. With better understanding, a genuinely democratic and inclusive group can be formed to represent the community.
• A cost-benefit analysis needs to take place before income-generating activities begin. Enterprises must be commercially viable and take future costs into account.
• For CBNRM to be successful, residents must invest in projects. Risk to the community must be minimised and benefits maximised through the careful analysis of market opportunities, technology and funding needs.

In Mozambique, no examples exist of CBNRM activities providing significant livelihood benefits as yet. In Derre, current power structures need to be revised, with a focus on providing more information to the poor about their rights. A clear process framework for transferring power to local people is needed. If current processes continue, elites are likely to maintain power and positive government policies will not create the desired benefits.

Source(s):
‘Community based natural resources management in Mozambique: a theoretical or practical strategy for local sustainable development? The case study of Derre Forest Reserve’, Sustainable Livelihoods in Southern Africa Research Paper 10, Institute of Development Studies, 2003

Funded by: UK Department for International Development’s Rural Livelihoods Department Policy Research Programme

id21 Research Highlight: 17 February 2005

Further Information:
Oliver Burch
Sustainable Livelihoods in southern Africa
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton
BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0)1273 621202
Contact the contributor: o.burch@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK

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'Managing woodland: how does Zimbabwe do it?'

'Consensual decision-making? The west African experience'

'Are governments out of the woods? Returning Africa’s woodlands to communities'

'Supporting local knowledge and protecting resources'

'Making the most of forest products'

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