ABSTRACT
In the past two decades, Mozambique was targeted by massive international investment requiring large-scale land acquisition for extractive industry and environmental-related projects. With the patronage of fragile and corrupt government elites, who have changed legislations to accommodate their interests, a vast amount of land was transferred from rural communities to investment projects with little or no compensation or land replacement. This chapter explores how Mozambican elites viewed the advantages of the land rush to accommodate their predatory appetite for easy wealth accumulation at the expense of the most disadvantaged Indigenous and rural people. Empirical evidence finds a correlation between intentional changes in legislation to foster land grabbing by government elites, embedded in the discourse of the need for local environmental protection supported by global climate reform pressures. Focusing on the Zambézia province as a case study, we find that all green projects implemented at the regional level directly or indirectly affected the livelihoods and income sources of local people, either by dispossessing them from their lands or by limiting access to their livelihood and income generation means. The study suggests that the governance of land resources needs to be done more transparently with the active engagement of all social groups.
