Environment minister calls for strengthened land organisation

This is the only way to reduce the impacts of climate change, she warned, at the opening of a session of the Coordinating Council of her Ministry.

The meeting is assessing the Ministry’s activities in 2022, notably the regularization of land use titles (known as DUATs).

“In the field of land and territorial ordering”, Maibasse said, “364,085 occupations of land in good faith, and by customary norms and practices, were regularized, under the ‘Secure Land’ Programme. This gave those occupying the land greater security of land tenure”.

486 plots of land were inspected, covering an area of almost 275,000 hectares.

Of this amount, said Maibasse, over 100,000 hectares are reverting to the state, because those who applied for this land, have failed to implement the agreed land use plans.

Over the past 12 months, she added, 154 land use planning instruments were inspected, with a focus on Detailed Plans and District Land Use Plans, with only partial implementation of most instruments having been found.

“In the same period, 1,573 socio-economic enterprises were inspected, culminating in the application of 195 fines, with a total value of almost 145 million meticais (about 2.27 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate)”, said the minister.

“Practice shows that there is a pressing need for land organisation in our country”, continued Maibasse. “That is because of our geographical location, prone to the occurrence of extreme climatic events, affecting the people and the infrastructures”.

The meeting of the Coordinating Council was held under the slogan “By ordering the territory, we are building climate resilience”.

(AIM)