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Rural land markets in Moзambique, its impact on land conflicts |
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| 5. Emergence of Rural Land Market |
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Although land tenure arrangements have remained somewhat similar to the post-independent, state owned structure, in which and is still owned by the government, which issues permits for its use, there is an emerging and promising rural land market. Problems have arisen as peasants without title deeds have often been threatened with eviction to make room for large-scale commercial farmers1. This system is now changing through Mozambique’s recently approved Land Law, according to which local communities’ rights and participation in land tenure and administration are stronger with long-term leaseholds granting use rights to land, although the state retains ownership of all land. Thus permanent rights can be granted to communities by fact of occupation, while individuals and corporations can apply for long-term leases, and land use title may be granted to good-faith occupiers on unclaimed land. Local communities can now apply for land use titles and enter into contracts with commercial farms. They must also be consulted and participate in the approval process for land concessions2.
5.1. Community Land Markets
Community markets are emerging trough out the country, in particular after the approval of the new Land Law. Under the new Land Law (Decree 66/98), a private investment project, which need land use rights acquisition, needs to verify if a community occupies the requested piece of land. If the area is occupied by a community, which is almost always the case for land close to the roads, and infrastructures (community rights achieved through occupation in good faith within the area being applied for), the communities have the rights to decide if the investment will be allocated in their areas or not. To be accepted by a community, a private investor has to fulfill some of community needs. The negotiations start when a private investor wants a piece of land located within a community area and for exchange with such a piece of land, a community usually requires some type of compensation. In general this compensation is not based on money, but in kind (i.e. for example in Namitуria, district of Angoche, part of community land is borrowed or sold to urban individuals, who pay back with part of their produce at the end of the farm season). The decision on how to pay occurs during a local community consultation3.
For example the community of Goba, Southern Mozambique, required for a private investor to provide them with a mechanic gin, and access to their sources of water (DNFFB 2001). While a community in Mucombuй, village in Manica province requires to a private investor to provide them with a primary school. Conflicts start in this case when a private investor fenced his land, limiting consequently community’s accessibility to the river, their only source of water. Furthermore, the investor brought a certain amount of cattle, but at the time of the fieldwork (May 2001), it exceeded the carrying capacity of the area, leading consequently to his cattle to invade most of the community member’s farms. In the district of Manica at Malidza/Penhalonga village, there is a new conflict between local communities and IFLOMA, a private company, since a company does no allow local people to use existing land located within IFLOMAґs area (PROAGRI 2001). The conflict is originated by the fact that during IFLOMA privatization, conducted at Ministry of Agriculture in Maputo, the countries capital, the local people were using the land located within the IFLOMA for more than 10 years and this factor was not take into account. Other examples of conflicts occurred during land transactions are related by the fact that an investor promises to use community members as employees, but then he recruits people from outside of the area. This is the case of Mozal, the largest aluminum factory in Mozambique.
In general communities see a private investor who requests land in their areas has a “big brother” since he can provide them with needed infrastructure. Some investors agreed to provide what the community request, but afterwards they take long to implant the promised request. This results from the fact that some private investors do not recognize the community leaders as the true community representatives4 or in the cases when community representatives who did always include traditional authorities.
There is a common concern for most of people and institutions dealing with land issues on communities’ representatives for bargain with investor during land transaction. Who is representing the communities in the land negotiations and transactions? This is a valid question as there have in the past been cases where investors have done deals with just a few community leaders who in fact have not bee legitimate representatives of the wider community. Some confusion seems to exist amongst communities regarding who is in control of the land. Some areas local people consider the village headman, while others speak of district authorities, heads of households, chiefs, and leaders of political parties, etc. It would appear as though all these different sectors of authority have in fact had some influence over land access, making a universal understanding of who distributes and market land rights difficult to attain. While land is most commonly distributed free of charge, some symbolic payment is occasionally made to either the village headman or some other authoritarian figure, or to family members / friends who used the land before. Land rights may in some occasions be sold if the land has already been cultivated and improved. This situation has been increasing largely with the emergency of land markets, since land investments opportunities are becoming one of major areas of economic development. In most districts land may not be bought or sold but can be inherited. Opinions as to who is eligible to inherit land in communal areas differ. The majority believe that only sons or other male family members may inherit, but some do concede that daughters / other female relatives may in some cases be eligible.
Unscrupulous tradition leaders (regulos, mwenes, etc) can also abuse their role as representatives. In a fieldwork conducted in Manica province (June 2000), communities requested to be allowed to choose their representatives between meetings and without pressures of having the “outsiders” present, especially during the delimitation5 of existing land rights prior to the titling process be in place.
Most of the investors complain that the consultation process is increasing their investment, since they have to build a community infrastructure and have to go back and forth to the area to negotiate, with participation of the provincial services of geography and cadastre (SPGC) and mediated by NGO’s. This interpretation is based on the fact that community’s request does not take into account the agro-climatic conditions of the area, land potential for selected investment and the type of investment proposed that in some cases are not directly linked to the market. Table 1 shows that less than 25% of all land request process in the country are going into a consultation process.
Another investor complaints is related to the fact the delimitation process also takes long and it is too costly, while the markets opportunities for the type of investment is not permanent. While the delimitation process occurs when there is a land conflict between two communities, we believe however, that community’s consultation is the only way to involve communities in the decision of their own land rights. Investors have to understand that community consultation process cannot be avoided since it is referred in the Land Law and its regulation. Therefore, whatever plan an investor has for a certain price of land should include a community consultation as part of his investment costs. However, the government should make this process much easily for both communities and investors. One way is to provide information at district basis about the actual land use, land use suitability, community areas, private allocation, etc for an easy selection of a potential area for investment. Secondly, the titling process should start at the district and community levels, where an investor starts his negotiation process with the community. After an agreement now the titling process can go to the SPGC for cadastral purposes. NGO’s and provincial land nucleus have a strong role in assuring the transparence on this process, both during community’s selection of their own representatives and during the negotiation process.
5.2. Private Land Markets
Private land markets started long time go especially after the introduction of the structural adjustment program in 1987. In this year the government started to privatize most of its small, medium and large-size companies from all sectors of the economy. Most of the state farm companies were also privatized depending on the economic sector. In the cotton sector, the government created Joint Venture Companies (JVC) in 1991. These ventures included the government, through its Ministry of Agriculture, (49%) and the private sector (51%), to develop the zones considered to be good for cotton production. Most of other economic areas had decline at the time, such as tea, sugar and rice industries and their land privatization had a very little impact in the land markets.
Individual land markets also become a very important in the context of the new economic development. After the structural adjustment programs individuals who where looking for private investments, including governmental and administrators leaders acquired large areas for private use. Large parts of the districts where allocated to these individual without consent of local communities and their traditional leaders. During this period the Ministry of Agriculture, the provincial directorate of Agriculture and the district authorities could allocated land, independent of its size and location. Overlapping allocation increased and land conflicts become a very detrimental factor. After the new Land Law and with an increase on international investments in Mozambique, rural land market has been steadily increasing, mainly along the corridors, prospects developing poles, near main infrastructures and in the past agricultural and tourism potential areas.
This market has been conducted in different ways, by individuals, private enterprises and families. The majority of promoters of a private land markets are urban people who wants a piece of land for agriculture, livestock, ranch or other type of land use. In general these people usually buy land from rural people. This practices is secret and it is made between relatives, fiends and outside of legal channels. The prices vary according to the needs of the seller, size of land, its location, capacity of the buyer etc. Then this piece of land is titling to a new owner under the normal legal mechanisms.
Internal markets within communities also occur. This happens in many cases among individual members of a community. For example, some farmers, mainly male young people open new fields (0.5 to 1 ha) and sell them to whom wants to farm within their own communities. These people normally carry this action when they want some money to move to urban areas, or to South Africa in the case of Southern Mozambique. Who buys those areas are in generally elder people who does not have household labor to farm. The price in this cases vary from USD$10 to USD$200, depending on the size of area and location of the farm.
Another emerging market results from private groups and individuals coming from South Africa and Zimbabwe, who rent part of the land from individuals during large periods for farming, mainly cash crops, game farming and other type of land use. During the field work conducted in many parts of the country (see Tique 1997 in Namialo, Nampula province, 1998 in Majune, Niassa province, 1999 in a study conducted in Mabalane, Gaza province, 2000 in study conducted in Gondola, Manica province, and 2002) most of the respondents agreed that there is an increase on land selling in theirs areas to foreign people. These people usually appear in the areas using Mozambican partners, who use they nationality for getting land rights, while in fact who pays and invest in the land is a foreign individual. The exchange in this is cases are not only in cash, but also, it is made “in kind”, i.e. mechanical gin, tractor, cars, etc.
Table 1: Total number of land request by individual persons, September 2000
| |
Number of process |
Notifications |
Results |
| Province |
Total > 1 ha |
Total < 1 ha |
Done |
Confirmed |
No confirmed |
Consultations |
Desistance |
| Maputo |
1.426 |
635 |
545 |
125 |
534 |
125 |
3 |
| Gaza |
NA |
NA |
449 |
152 |
297 |
192 |
15 |
| Inhambane |
595 |
546 |
595 |
153 |
442 |
NA |
2 |
| Sofala |
257 |
45 |
258 |
176 |
108 |
19 |
32 |
| Manica |
366 |
1 |
306 |
178 |
87 |
NA |
41 |
| Tete |
315 |
85 |
347 |
107 |
230 |
84 |
23 |
| Zambezia |
1.033 |
944 |
1.643 |
165 |
1.480 |
NA |
4 |
| Nampula |
1.229 |
27 |
420 |
319 |
79 |
NA |
5 |
| Cabo Delgado |
323 |
56 |
154 |
0 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Niassa |
134 |
140 |
133 |
72 |
NA |
46 |
70 |
| Total |
5.678 |
2.479 |
4.850 |
1.447 |
3.257 |
466 |
195 |
| Source: DINAGECA (2001) |
5.3. Land distribution between farmers association and their own communities
The emergency of farmers association occur in early 1990’s as a new move replacing the cooperative system which was linked to the previous socialist regime. The farmers association is composed by a group of people with the same objective resulting from the fact that in many rural areas local people does not have means to solve their own problems, and then they get together to solve it as a group. This occurs in general for crop production and commercialization, access to credits and other inputs, price negotiations and most recently for land titling process. Although the associations are require to consult their own communities for land allocation, in general the community leaders are members of the association and in most cases this consultation process is not conduct in a proper manner as required by law.
5.3.1. The case of 25th of September Association in Namialo
The 25th of September is an association of Small and Medium Private Farmers (ASMPF) created in Namialo at the former communal village called 25th of September. It was a local response to protect the farmers from losing their land to private groups and to solve internal land conflicts. The first task of the association was to acquire the title for all land that their members were cultivating or would be cultivating in the near future (Tique 1996). Initially the ASMPF requested 350 hectares of land in the same place where the communal village 25th of September was located. In order to receive the title, the ASMPF had to pay for title fees (e.g., demarcation fees, criminal statutory fees and other procedural costs) on the basis of the previous land law 1989). This association was registered in September 1997, and they already have their own land titling acquired under the previous law (Title 1135/T/99).
Conflicts between the farmers association and community emerged in 1995, mainly between the pioneers (considered de facto leaders of the association), the local traditional authorities (cabos in this case) and smallholder farmers who still inherited their land through the traditional system, continue to date (2002). The conflict between the association and the local traditional authorities resulted from the fact that the traditional authorities--who had rights to concede land to its community members and to solve land litigation between its members--felt that the association was taking over their authority. The pioneer members of the association had preferential access to land near the Namialo river, the national highway (EN8) and close to the markets. Also, the areas acquired by the association belonged to the Mugila regulado (a traditional lineage group in the area) although some of the leaders of the association, including the president, do not belong to the same regulado, but they occupied large areas within the regulado (now divided into communities after the delimitation). Under these circumstances, the traditional authorities felt that their land was being grabbed by outsiders, without any transactions or compensation to the community. This community had already been delimitated in 2000 and the area titled by the farmers association are also included within community’s areas.
The second point of disagreement, in 1995, arose from the fact that each member of the ASMPF was required to pay for the amount of land he/she would occupy in the association. This was because the cabos and regulos and other traditional authorities had to pay for the land they occupied acquired through their rights in the local traditional systems. Thus farmers, mainly women who inherited land from their parents, had to pay for it. For example Maria Mwassuarapi recounted:
The association leaders, mainly Manuel Nachico (who calls himself
president of the association) asked me to pay initially 5,000.00 Mt
($0.50 dollars) in 1994 and now he has increased it to 37,000.00 Mt.
($3.50 dollars) for this land that always belonged to my parents.
They did not ask me to incorporate my land in their association.
It is not right (Personal interview with Mwassuarapi 1995).
However, according to the president of the ASMPF, they requested payment for land occupation in order to pay the government for the land title (Interviewed with Manuel Nachico by Arilindo Chilundo in 1995).
A new conflict is appearing most recently (2001-2) between a Portuguese citizen who lives in Namialo, who request approximately 1500 hectares located near the 25th September community. The ASMPF decided also to increase their area to 700 ha since their membership has already increased (from 75 to 120). Part of these areas is overlapping with the area requested by the private farmer, since the area is also located outside of the initial cabo’s area. While during the negotiation process with local communities, the consultation process, local leaders (regulos) agreed to concede the area to a private individual, in exchange for employment on his farm and in inputs for cotton cultivation. According to the local leaders (regulos) their preference for a private individual results from the previous conflict with the farmers association, and by the fact that the ASMPF never attempt to solve the dispute with them and now they don’t want to negotiate with them for the new having access to the new area. Another reason is the fact that members of the ASMPF are separating themselves from the community since they are able to negotiate their own cotton prices better than the rest of the community, within the association forum6. They now are bargaining for low producer prices with other members of the community, in order to get better profits after selling for the companies. Community members are very suspicious of the ASMPF leadership.
While, the cabo prefer to allocate the land to the ASMPF. First because he now is a member of such association, secondly because he has a usufruct right to decide for land allocation located within his domain. The private farmer complains that the ASMPF is usurpating his areas, attributed by the community, even-though he has an agreement with community leadership, because an existent infrastructure in the area.
Although this example occurred at a micro-level scale, it shows a hierarchical pattern based on power and economic relations that may be happening at the regional level, in which the association, traditional, private and governmental leaders at the local and regional levels have always given themselves preferential access to the best land, leaving the less fertile and marginal land to the rest of the farmers. This conflict is between over power, since the regulo is feeling that not only the association, but also his Cabo is taking decisions without his consent. This is becoming not only a land question, but also a territorial dispute, since the Cabo’s area is located within the regulo’s area, but according to communities delimitation process the limits is based on the Cabo’s area. Power and economic relations have led in general to an inequitable distribution of the land resources and are undermine land existing local land markets.
5.3.2. Land conflicts as a Result of Rural Land Markets
Land conflicts followed these same characteristics as the one’s having earlier 1990’s. In a study conducted in Inhambane in October 2001 (INIA 2001) farmers were asked if there was more or less land available now than before, Forty seven percent (47%) of the farmers reported that there was less land available in 2001 than in the past. Twenty percent (20%) responded that there was abundant land now (in 2001) than before and eight percent (8%) responded that there were no land problems yet but there would be in the near future. Fifty seven percent (57%) of the farmers who agreed that there was land scarcity at the present time and twenty percent of the farmers, who predicted that there would be land scarcity in the near future, attributed it to the expansion of private groups in the area. Seventeen percent (17%) of the farmers believed that because all farmers want to increase the size of their farms, land has become scarce. Ten percent (10%) of the farmers agreed that it was the increase of population, which leads to land scarcity.
The influx of private groups with land titles given by the provincial authorities and the Minister of Agriculture has been largely increased and they seemed to have the best land, at the expense of local farmers. The farmers whose land was expropriated were allocated new land, further away from their houses and, in most cases, in marginal areas, although the consultation mechanism among community members was conducted.
Another type of conflict is related to claims by returned relatives of some colonial settlers who had large properties in the area. These settlers had the usufruct right to use the land during the colonial period, obtained through compulsory policies. Local farmers in general complained about the invasion of these groups, under the approval of the district administrative authorities. This constrained local farmers who occupied these areas after they abandoned the country. These colonial settlers are requesting their areas to the Government, usually at the central level, which in some cases decided without take into account the current situation, in which communities have been occupied for more than 10 years.
Some conflicts emerged between who controls land within the general territory and the land within territories within regulados. Leaders of some farmers associations, the local traditional authorities (regulos) and smallholder farmers who still inherited their land through the traditional system, are creating conflicts between the association and the local traditional authorities (regulos) due to the fact that the traditional authorities--who had rights to concede land to its community members, regulados, and to solve land litigation between its members--felt that the Cabo’s (including within farmers association) are taking over their authority, in particular in areas dominated by cash crops, i.e. cotton.
Footnotes:
- http://www.sapem.co.zw/saindigenous.html
- Land Tenure Centre and Bard of Regents, Univ. of Wisconsn
(http://www.wisc.edu/ltc/news79a5.html) UNFAO “District Profiles”
- The community consultation is an important part of the titling process to obtrain provisional authorization and a key element in the evaluatiuon of application for a land by outside interests who seeks access to land and other resources located within the borders of one or more communities. The objective of the local community consultation is first to clarify if there are existing land use rights in the area being applied for, and the second is to establish clarity if possible between existing rights and the application in question.
- The new law and its regulations specifies that communities must select between 3 and 9 people to represent them in dealings with outsiders and in the process of community land identification and delimitation.
- Delimitation is the identification of a community limit area or by national singular persons, who are using the land for at least ten years, in good faith, including its launching in the national cadastral.
- Forum is composed by elected individuals from farmers association who represent them in the negotiating process with private enterprises for crop price allocation, inputs and production. Forums are become much more market oriented and they are able to discuss at high levels (including at national level) about their production systems, mainly cash crops (cotton, maize, groundnuts and cashew nuts) and to find better markets.
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