This report investigates cases of land grabbing in Uganda, focusing in particular on oil palm plantations in Kalangala, Lake Victoria. It assesses the impacts on rural communities and on the local environment, and questions who benefits from these projects.

Rural Communities have their own sets of laws rooted in their particular culture, environment, traditions and history that are separate from national laws. Lack of education, years of wartime political oppression and violence, and government-enforced cooperative ventures during the 1970’s have created a deep feeling of suspicion among rural small-scale farmers for all government laws and programs. This
conception has been reinforced by the fact that historically communities have only been made aware of

This study examines the statutory recognition of customary land tenure in Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania, which were chosen as case studies because of the diverse approaches to the issue they represent. Botswana's Tribal Land Act (1968) established a system of regional land boards and transferred the land administration and management powers of customary leaders to the boards, which originally included both customary leaders and state officials among their members.

After a number of constitutional amendments in 1990 had introduced the need to revise the legal framework for land and natural resources1, the government of Mozambique embarked upon a rather piecemeal process to develop a new policy and institutional framework for natural resource management. The main pillars of this framework consist of various pieces of legislation dealing with specific natural resources, such as the Land Law, the Forestry & Wildlife Law, the Mining Law and their related regulations and annexes.

This report is a product of a partnership between Terra Firma and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), contributing to a study of changing land access in sub-Saharan Africa supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Mozambique currently has one of the highest rates of land concessions throughout Africa. In the coming years, if large-scale land concession grants to private investors are not carefully controlled, the amount of land still held and managed by rural Mozambicans will decrease significantly, with associated negative impacts on already impoverished rural communities.

As mudanças no acesso e uso da terra em Moçambique estão a criar novas paisagens, geralmente às custas das populações pobres. Apesar de haver uma legislação progressista da terra, grupos de elite e interesses privados estão a consolidar as suas propriedades de terra, enquanto que os camponeses perdem as suas terras e o acesso a terrenos férteis fica cada vez mais difícil.

Ces dix dernières années, le Mozambique est devenu une cible privilégiée de la ruée mondiale vers les terres. Les investissements croissants dans les secteurs de l’exploitation minière, des hydrocarbures, des plantations de forêts et de l’agriculture industrielle visent le plus souvent des terres rurales qui, en vertu du droit coutumier, sont détenues par les communautés locales. En découlent de fréquents conflits entre les communautés et les investisseurs.

A gestão directa ou indirecta da terra é realizada por actores diversos, como seja, aqueles que intervêm nas Comunidades Locais (artigo 24 da Lei de Terras de 1997), os titulares dos direitos sobre a terra (singulares, investidores) etc, para além da Administração Pública (AP). Contudo, o papel de gestão da terra reservado a AP é muito importante e estratégico.

Directiva sobre o processo de expropriação para efeitos de Ordenamento territorial

The mainstay of this report, however, is not so much an examination of the extractive industries themselves as an examination of the Mozambican government’s and society’s ability to handle the impacts of these industries and where capacity growth is most urgently needed. In this regard, this investigation looks at three principal areas. The first area is about maximizing the receipts that reach legitimate government coffers. This includes the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which ensures that company and governmentpayments match.

Regulamento da Lei de Minas e seus anexos (Decreto 31/2015)