Mozambique: Cahora Bassa drives higher electricity output in H1
Region of Topuito, where the Irish multinational Kenmare operates. Photo: DW
A non-governmental organisation claims that the Mozambican government has granted licenses to exploit mineral resources in protected areas totalling over 330,000 hectares. The executive admits back-tracking on the issue of licenses in reserved areas.
The Mozambican government is violating environmental protection and forestry reserves in the Pebane and Angoche districts of Zambézia and Nampula provinces by granting licenses to some multinationals to exploit mineral resources.
The accusation comes from Solidarity Mozambique, an organisation that works in the area of mineral resources and good governance in northern Mozambique and in Zambézia in the centre of the country.
“From Pebane [Zambézia] to Angoche [Nampula], around 17 companies have been awarded concessions to explore heavy sands in marine conservation areas,” Solidarity Mozambique executive director António Mutoa says.
Mutoa says international conventions to which Mozambique is a signatory are being violated, and the organisation has therefore decided to sue the government.
“We think this is an egregious violation of conservation law and we are bringing a case to the Nampula General Attorney’s Office, and also sending the dossier to the Zambezia Provincial Prosecutor’s office, in order to restore legality,” he says.
For Mutoa, “the dream of building marine biodiversity” is in danger. Given the exploitation of heavy sands, the removal of soil and the ships that may pass through to embark cargo, “it is no longer a conservation area”, he says. “This is our concern.”
Government ponders to negotiate
The provincial director of Mineral Resources and Energies in Nampula, Olavo Daniasse, denies that the licenses allocated to the companies are for exploitation. “The licensing processes observe various procedures, and we are eventually talking about search licenses. It is still not exploitation as such,” he said.
Daniasse acknowledges that his institution has been notified in this matter. “We are working with the Central Registry to check the matter point by point and situation by situation,” he says.
“One or another case [of exploitation in a conservation area] may occur, for example if we have resources that occur at sea, it may be coincident with proximity to some conservation area,” Daniasse says. He admits that “there will be situations in which it will be necessary to extract the resource”, and that “it is legitimate that, if there is any license in the prohibited areas, they be negotiated to see if they are viable”.
Daniasse further promises that the government will do everything to “avoid hurting sensitivities”.
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