Extraction and right to food in Mozambique: Empty promises to empty plates
Posted: 24 August, 2015 Filed under: Nastasia Thebaud-Bouillon | Tags: access to education, Cabo Delgado, coal, development, extraction, extractive industries, foreign multinational companies, graphite, infertile land, mining, Mozambique, rural communities, social impact, Tete, urban development 1 Comment
Author: Nastasia Thebaud-Bouillon
Student (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
Piece of land used to mean peace of mind in Mozambique. But the day extractive industries came in the North and started resettling communities, everything disappeared: piece of land alongside peace of mind. The cocktail was simple: a promise of new land, a better house and employment. The result was far from that; eviction without proper compensation, and relocation to empty bare lands with no opportunity to grow food for their subsistence. Not to mention that these resettlement lands were far from market opportunities.
Research conducted in Mozambique in April 2015 shows that mining has not brought the development and services communities expected in Tete and Cabo Delgado provinces in Northern and Central Mozambique. Extraction has often been conducted more to the detriment than to the benefits of host communities. This is mainly due to the lack of capacity of authorities in dealing with foreign multinational companies.
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