Concessions are being granted at the central, provincial, and district levels of government
by different ministries, including agriculture, mineral resources, and tourism. Concessions
are being given for agricultural land, mineral exploration, hunting reserves, grazing, forestry
and timber, and tourism zones at a rate that has increased substantially over the last two
years. This trend shows no sign of abating.
We estimate, based upon confirmed data and unconfirmed reports, that as of June 1994
approximately 40.7 million hectares of land have been granted in concessions or "sold" to
private commercial enterprises. This figure represents 50 percent of the country's total land
area, including mountains, swamps, rivers, and other nonproductive areas. It represents 113
percent of the country's total arable land. This figure, 40.7 million hectares, may not
accurately reflect total land area bestowed by government to private interests. First, we have
only partial data from a few districts in five provinces and have excluded the more extreme
unconfirmed reports of concessions covering millions of hectares. We also know that
RENAMO is awarding hunting, and possibly agricultural, concessions in its areas of political
control; however, we have thus far been unable to gather any concrete data about these
grants. As a result the area could be substantially larger. Second, we know that some of these
concessions overlap, which may reduce the total area held by private interests. Both points
are discussed more fully below.
Three principal problems exist in Mozambique's land tenure system. First, the formal
land-tenure system is weak and ineffective, permitting both legal and extralegal land grabbing
without securing land rights for the new landholders. Second, the formal judicial,
administrative, and political structures are weak and ineffective. The state is unwilling or
unable to effectively administer the land laws which do exist. And third, the formal land-
tenure system, with its accompanying laws, does not reflect the economic, social, and
political realities in rural Mozambique.
Despite growing public concern over the magnitude of these concessions and increasing
numbers of land conflicts, both of which have been reported frequently in the Mozambican
media, government has largely avoided the subjects of land tenure and land administration.
Officials often state that there are no land or land tenure problems in Mozambique and that
the current land-tenure system is adequate. They argue that there is plenty of land for
everyone. At the same time, they insist that there are few cases of overcrowding and, where
land shortages do exist, they will be resolved when all the displaced people move back to
their "areas of origin." The government insists that it has the capacity to administer land,
including the distribution of land and land rights, as well as the capability to resolve conflicts.
Government officials often justify concessions to larger commercial interests, rather than
smallholders, by arguing that these larger farms are more efficient. They state that
smallholders lack "sufficient capacity" to exploit the better, more strategically located lands.
This argument has frequently been used to justify displacing smallholders in favor of
nonnative commercial interests. Indeed, there is a continuing bias in government against
smallholders, smallholder production, and even small commercial interests. The bias is also
directed against customary rules and processes, local tradition and customary authority. This
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