The name is absent

13

avoid erosion, and prevent land contamination. Land not used according to these obligations,
even if "secured" by a lease, may be confiscated by the state. The law recognizes the
existence of customary land use without conferring any special rights on it. If land is
confiscated, the law states that the former rights-holder is entitled to unspecified compensa-
tion. ²⁷ However, the law also states in ARTICLE 35 that landholders who have their rights
revoked will not be compensated for the loss of any investments, including infrastructure,
construction, or other improvements. These two provisions of the law create a significant
disincentive to investment.

The 1979 Land Law itself is vague in many provisions, and it appears that its framers
intended this to be so until more specific regulations could be developed. Between 1979 and
1992, a number of presidential and ministerial decrees—and several laws—were enacted that
have made minor modifications to land law. ²⁸

The third significant piece of legislation to affect land tenure, the Land Law Regulations
(Decree 16/87), was not enacted until September 1987, eight years after the Land Law was
established. This decree was much more specific than the Land Law, reflecting economic and
political changes that had occurred in Mozambique in the intervening years. For example, the
preamble to the decree asserts that one objective of the law is to decentralize authority over
conceded land. This reflects recommendations of the Fourth Party Congress in 1983 that
control of some state functions be transferred to the provincial level. Indeed, the regulations
specify responsibilities or competencies to be exercised by the council of ministers, ministers,
provincial governors, and locality executive councils with regard to land and other natural
resources; however, other provisions of the decree—and later laws and decrees—had the
opposite impact, which was to centralize control over land and natural resources. ²⁹
Consequently, contradictions within this law, between this law and₃o_other laws, and between
the laws and government's stated objectives have led to confusion.

The regulations stipulate that security of land tenure for private sector farmers is
guaranteed by registration of title, and that security for family sector farmers is guaranteed
by occupation. Two types of document are available: Certificate of Family Occupation, and
Title of Use and Exploitation. Land titles are in the form of leases, granted for a maximum
of fifty years under the Land Law Regulations. Private sector farmers are required to apply
for a title, while family sector farmers need not acquire a certificate. Regardless of the
security implied, the regulations also (in conjunction with the 1979 Land Law) authorize the
state to seize or confiscate land for a variety of reasons. ³¹

27. See ARTS. 34-36 of the 1979 Land Law.

28. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993).

29. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993); Martins (1994); and Garvey (1994).

30. See Boucher et al. (1993, 1994); Roth et al. (1994); Weiss and Myers (1994); Myers, West, and Eliseu
(1993); Martins (1994); and Garvey (1994).

31. The Land Law Regulations state that anyone who has had land taken by the state, including land
redistributed to other family sector farmers, private sector farmers, or state officials, is entitled to compensation
(ARTS. 49-52). In practice, this rarely occurs.

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