Mozambique

Green Resources S.A., a company with mostly Norwegian capital, is considered to be the largest tree plantation company in Africa. The reality on the ground reveals serious land conflicts between the company and local communities, in Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania. This article reflects the situation in Mozambique.

This briefing, compiled by the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) and the Timberwatch Coalition (TW), is now also available in Swahili. It focuses on various internal and external factors determining changes in the extent of land under industrial tree plantations in 11 eastern and southern African countries: Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda; South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho; and Madagascar.

The extractivist paradigm in Southern Africa threatens the lives and livelihoods of peasant communities, in particular women and girls: From the Tete Province in Mozambique, where women confront water scarcity and pollution to Zimbabwe’s Marange community, where militarised and often sexualised violence haunts women’s daily lives.

The Programme of Infrastructure Development for Africa (PIDA) was adopted in 2012 with the aim of connecting the continent’s energy, transport, water and communication infrastructure. But what kind of infrastructure does “Africa” really need and who is getting more access with such initiative? This article looks into the hydropower dams proposed for PIDA

Industrial tree plantation projects in Mozambique are gaining more and more ground in processes of land acquisition and dispute. The Portuguese company, Portucel, has a “reforestation” plan through 2026 that aims to cover 356 thousand hectares.

This article gives an overview on the industrial tree plantation expansion threat in eastern and southern African countries, its external drivers, as well as the challenges this expansion presents to affected communities struggling to defend their land and livelihoods.

Only available in Portuguese

The report “Portucel – the Process of acquiring access to land and the rights of local communities” was published by Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique in 2016, in partnership with the World Rainforest Movement (WRM). Portucel Mozambique is a Portuguese company with the biggest land concession among the plantation companies – 356,000 ha – .

The report “The advance of Forest Plantations on the Farmers Territories in the Nacala corridor: the case of Green Resources Mozambique”   was launched in 2016 by the Mozambican organisations Livaningo, UNAC (National Peasants Union) and Justiça Ambiental/Friends of the Earth Mozambique, and written by Lexterra.

On September 30, a petition was delivered with 12,323 signatures from several national and international organisations, as well as from individuals, in solidarity with and support to the communities in Mozambique that struggle against the expansion of tree monoculture plantations. The petition has been submitted to the companies Green Resources in Norway and Portucel/The Navigator Company in Portugal, as well as to governmental institutions in Mozambique including the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Download the publication. Also available in Swahili.