During the colonial period, the government allocated land to concessionaires, who became independent centres of power. In 1870, concessions and monopoly rights were granted to private companies in order to foster private investment. These companies provided basic public services and levied taxes. Although Africans were allowed to control large areas, their rights to land were residual and subject to confiscation for the development of new settlements and plantations. 



There were no designated communal lands where local communities’ land rights were protected. In general, small-scale family agriculture sustained the local people, but they needed to supplement this with paid labour to pay taxes (Boyd, Pereira and Zaremba, 2000). Individual property rights in rural areas applied only to cultivated land, where users could exclude others from access to the land and its resources.

 These characteristics of the land tenure system shaped the relationship between rural communities and the government, and − in part − continue to influence it today, regardless of policy changes. The Forest Regulation of 1965 (Article 41) made it possible to establish community forests for local populations, in coordination with the Forest Services and other relevant institutions. The Forest Service facilitated commercial exploitation, and benefits were shared between the service and local communities. Although no clear definition of local community was made, it was understood that the community was represented by the local administrative authority. 


The regulation stipulated that the benefits of forestry were to be used for the social development of local communities. The same regulation (Article 79, 1 and Article 86) exempted local communities from the cutting licence and taxes on open land for products they used for their own consumption or for carving. Because the concept of community was not well developed, there were no specific provisions for the protection and development of community forestry, but it was understood that local communities owned the forest resources on open land. Open land was defined as land that was neither private property (demarcated land for private use) nor production forest.

The latter was land specifically reserved for commercial purposes, and concessionaires were required to prove financial and technical competence before being allocated these areas for periods of five to ten years. Since independence in 1975, two periods can be distinguished in Mozambique’s history. The first period was marked by the nationalization of private property, centralized ownership and State control of the land and its resources as the key components of socialism. Socialization of the countryside involved the development of State enterprises and cooperatives in the plantations and companies left by the Portuguese colonizers.


 Areas outside these schemes were defined as the “family sector”, and were also subject to socialist principles. The civil war that took place throughout most of the 1980s and early 1990s severely limited accessibility to land and its resources. Displaced people were concentrated in secure areas around urban centres and the main road networks, putting pressure on the land and its resources. At the same time, extensive abandoned areas in the countryside were left to regenerate with natural vegetation and wildlife. During this period, the colonial forest regulation remained unchanged, but forest property was treated under the new land law. There were no provisions to protect community rights over forest resources. Community cooperatives using forest resources could be established, but only wood carving cooperatives became numerous. 

Forests belonged to the State, whose enterprises could exploit forest resources for commercial purposes without paying taxes or drawing up management plans. Community investments in social services depended on central planning and budgeting, and not on the production level of the locality concerned. During this period, the main focus of forestry was forest plantations, with an emphasis on fast-growing species to supply wood energy and poles for urban markets. The strategy included the establishment of woodlots managed by the State, community woodlots, and a wide variety of agroforestry systems, which provided rural communities with seedlings as an incentive. he second post-independence period was marked by the introduction of economic structural adjustment in 1987, a new constitution in 1990, the end of civil war in 1992 and the first general multiparty elections in 1994. 


Areas that had been inaccessible during the war were opened up, exposing weak local administrations and communities to settlers from other areas and infrastructure damage. The post-war period was characterized by depleted forest resources resulting from illegal logging, poaching and the establishment of settlements, among other causes. Local authorities and Forest Service officers were unable to arrest these activities, and the apparent gains from regenerated resources were soon lost.

This period was also marked by a shift from centralized planning to the market economy, which required the reform of land and natural resource legislation, most of which occurred in the late 1990s, particularly the Land Act of 1997 and the Forest and Wildlife Act of 1999. The Land Act of 1997 maintains some aspects of the socialist Land Act of 1979 by defining land as State property. The State can therefore grant land-use rights to stakeholders, while retaining property rights itself. One important element of the new act is its recognition of customary rights over land, which it puts on the same level as land-use rights. Customary rights can be granted to individuals or communities, and provide land-use rights to individuals and groups with common interests.