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This paper examines the fundamentals of Mozambican land policy from a livelihoods perspective and identifies considerable potential for improving the sustainability of rural livelihoods and the flexibility and cost effectiveness of policy instruments aimed at increasing security of tenure.The paper examines the impact of the cancellation of private land applications in one province, and argues that, notwithstanding the apparent official reluctance to implement this element of the policy, the impact has been almost wholly beneficial for local community groups.Challenges to land policy framework to realise pro poor policy objectives include:the uneven implementation of the lawabsence of official resources for community land delimitationsthe cursory manner in which local consultations are conducted.Recommendations include:investment in and engagement with the new community institutionsfurther mechanisms need to be developed that will translate the newly registered natural capital into realisable benefits for the rural pooran approach that assists the rural poor in understanding the value and potential of their land is criticalthe existing land administration system, geared more to servicing the needs of the minority, has to be turned into a service for the rural majorityconsultations should be viewed as serious opportunities rather than bureaucratic hurdles, delimitations should be treated as the beginning of longer term development processes rather than isolated exercises in boundary establishment, and the new institutions created as a result of the land policy should be allowed and encouraged by the state to be formal community representatives rather than being marginalisedthe more the practise of tenure reform begins to conform to the policy intentions, the quicker and more effectively will those in rural areas be given the opportunity to improve their livelihoods.[adapted from author]
