Lichinga Field Study; Linkages between livelihoods and natural resources

The Niassa Reforestation Project (hereafter referred to as the Project) is an initiative within the Malonda Programme. The Government of Mozambique has decided to allocate 220 000 ha of land in the Lichinga district to the Malonda Foundation for development of agriculture, forestry and tourism. The intention is to sub-lease part of the land to the local company Chikweti. The main investor in Chikweti is the Church of Sweden/Diocese of Västerås, who has drawn up a business plan that describes the management of 46 000 ha of FSC-certified forest plantations and 45 000 ha of conservation areas. A community development programme will be carried out and funds allocated to a Village Development Fund, which will be managed independently by the affected communities. The Project will include the plantation of pine, eucalyptus, teak and indigenous species. A second investor, Saxonian, has independently applied for land concession for 210 000 ha to the GoM and gets legal support from Malonda. Saxonian will also follow FSC guidelines and seeks to do plantation forestry on 120 000 ha and create people’s dependency on natural resources and their coping strategies during times of stress (environmental, social or economic), specifically with regard to the extent that these strategies are dependent on natural resources. The study aims to provide data that will support an assessment of whether the Project will increase or decrease vulnerability among the local people, and specifically which groups are the most vulnerable.

The data gathered shall support an assessment of the potential impact on poverty reduction that the Project might have on a regional scale. To this end, it is also important to identify those factors which are driving the development that is already taking place today and whether these could be affected, positively and/or negatively, due to the Project.