Institutional Change and Community Based Natural Resource Management in Northern Mozambique
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INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND COMMUNITY BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE The Village Goes Forward: Governance and Natural Resources in North Niassa Simon Anstey A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Applied Social Sciences) Centre for Applied Social Sciences University of Zimbabwe May 2009 Frontispiece ‘Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that is no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…..And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’ F. Scott Fitzgerald (1932:150) The Great Gatsby ‘When its war – well that’s our work! When it’s hunting, well that’s our work! When it’s love- making, there’s no denying that’s our work too! But my son whatever it is, do it thoroughly and “fanisa kassee kanaoomi” [work with integrity- Kiswahili]’ The advice of a Yao elder in Sanga District, northern Niassa to his son quoted in Sutherland (1912:47) The Adventures of an Elephant Hunter Map 1: Location of Field Research Tanzania Zambia Niassa Reserve Chipanje Chetu Malawi Mozambique ii ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to examine how the extensive institutional change of reforms to policy and legislation in Mozambique over the past decade has affected evolutions at the local level in the governance of natural resources. The particular focus of the research is an analysis of a community based natural resource management (CBNRM) initiative in North Sanga District of Niassa Province and a longitudinal study of its development between 1999 and 2007 based on my involvement as both field practioner and researcher. The analytical approach uses the framework of complex adaptive cycles emphasising time and scale aspects of institutional change allied to a review of theories and philosophies on democratic governance and decentralisation of natural resource management. This frame has been used in a detailed analysis of firstly the political history of Mozambique and its specific history of natural resource management over the past 50 years and with an emphasis on the recent post-war reforms in democratisation at the national political scale and the reforms in land and resource tenure. Secondly it has analysed 500 years of history of the Yao people of Niassa Province and in particular the governance features associated with their matrilineal system and the colonial and post independence contexts of local histories. These different scales are drawn together in the specific analysis of the development of the CBNRM initiative in North Sanga. The research reveals institutional change in the governance of natural resources by communities in North Sanga as non-linear, non-equilibrium and scale interactive; as well as the agency in change being contingent on specific contexts (historical, social and environmental) and responsive to the beliefs of the actors involved. The importance of ‘crisis’ in promoting new cycles of adaptation for local governance is emphasised as is the significance of gaining formal ownership of the land by the community in acting as a key promoter of their agency in institutional and governance change. The thesis questions the preoccupation in the scholarship on democratisation in natural resource governance that gives considerable weighting to the issue of institutional choice between public and private entities (‘de-centralisation’ and ‘de-volution’). It argues that such concerns over the ‘correct’ institutional choice places too much emphasis on structure, external design or abstract political theory; and in privileging central power and authority as a starting point of negotiation, reinforces a bureaucratic view of the state and a subject rather than citizen approach to democracy. The thesis stresses the significance throughout history of the opposite dynamic and cycles of governance – how to hold on to (or return to) the strengths and diversity of communal and customary institutions with diffused governance from multiple sources, balanced with the need to delegate upwards certain powers and authority, while retaining downward accountability. The critical aspect identified in this research is what factors can generate community agency to promote such governance in adaptive and context specific conditions; and concludes that in the case of north Sanga District, a process of (and tensions around) re-localisation and restitution of land and resource proprietorship has been a potent source of such agency. The thesis ends with some methodological reflections on the value of the ‘practioner-scholar’ approach used in this study. iii CONTENTS ABSTRACT Acknowledgements viii Acronyms x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction 1 2. Research Problem 3 3. Research Aims and Objectives 4 Research Aim 4 Research Objectives and Questions 6 4. Outline of Chapters 7 CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND RESEARCH METHODS 1. Introduction 10 2. Concepts and Theoretical Approaches 10 Introduction 10 Governance and Democracy 12 Decentralisation and Devolution 18 Complex Adaptive Cycles 23 3. Research Methods 27 Scholar-Practioner Approach 27 Resource Use Assessment Methods 29 4. Positionality and Research Ethics 32 Positionality 32 Research Ethics 32 5. Summary 33 CHAPTER 3 MOZAMBIQUE: GOVERNANCE IN THE LARGE SOCIETY 1. Introduction 35 Chapter Aims 35 National Context 36 2. Historical Context 38 The Portuguese Colonial Era 38 Independence and the Socialist Era 42 Post Civil War to the Present 47 3. Reforms in Governance 52 Local Government 52 Land Tenure Reforms 56 Natural Resource Reforms 59 Overview 61 iv 4. Transformative Preservation and Adaptive Cycles 62 5. Conclusions 64 CHAPTER 4 CONSERVATION, COMMUNITIES AND NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE 1. Introduction 66 2. Historical Evolutions 66 Conservation in the Colonial Era 67 Conservation in the Post-independence Era 72 3. Current Evolutions: State Institutions and Natural Resources 77 Bubbling Up Years 77 Convergent Years 80 Growth to Stabilisation Years 83 4. Natural Resource Governance and Communities 90 The Evolution of CBNRM Programmes 90 Current Trends and Challenges 97 5. Conclusions 101 CHAPTER 5 NIASSA PROVINCE AND THE SMALL SOCIETY: GOVERNANCE AND THE YAO PEOPLE 16th TO 19th CENTURY 1. Introduction 104 Geographic Context 104 Niassa ‘The End of The World’ 106 2. Yao Origins, Yohanna Abdullah and Historical Themes 107 3. Yao History Up to the Early 19th Century. 110 Introduction 110 The Small Society Up to the Early 19th Century 111 4. 1800’s to Early 20th Century; The Wars of the Chiefs and Emergence 123 of the Sultans Context for Change: Drought, Slavery, War 123 The Emergence of the Sultans 129 5. Conclusions 135 CHAPTER 6 NIASSA PROVINCE COLONIALISM, REVOLUTION AND PEACE: 20th TO 21st CENTURY 1. Introduction 138 2. Early Colonial Administration 138 3. Yao Identity and Colonial State Administration 141 Yao Identity 141 The Liberation War 145 4. Post Independence: Revolution and the Small Society 151 Transforming Society 151 ‘Operation Production’ 153 Local Administrative Weakness and Advent of Civil War 155 v 5. Peace and Some Old Challenges 158 Introduction 158 New Visions, State Administration, NGOs and Donors 160 6. Conclusions 163 CHAPTER 7 NATURAL RESOURCES AND GOVERNANCE IN NORTH SANGA DISTRICT 1. Introduction 168 North Sanga Setting 169 Population and Recent History 172 2. Social Structure: Settlement and Governance 176 The Village Matrilineage Revisited 176 Settlement Dynamics in North Sanga 178 Multiple Sources of Governance 180 3. Land and Natural Resources – Use and Institutions 183 Land and Agriculture 183 Water and Fish Resources 184 Forest and Wildlife 184 Resource Trends 185 Resource Users and Resource Institutions 186 Local Livelihoods 187 4. Natural Resources and Local Development 189 Development Constraints and Priorities 189 Natural Resource Based Development Options 190 Challenges for Development 191 5. Conclusions 192 CHAPTER 8 PROGRAMA CHIPANJE CHETU: CBNRM IN NORTH SANGA, NIASSA 1. Introduction 194 Objectives of Programa Chipanje Chetu 195 Development of Guiding Principles 197 The Collaborative Group 203 2. Building Local Natural Resource Governance: 1998-2001 205 Village Management and Governance Institutions 205 Development of By-Laws 211 Local Enforcement of Rules 213 Natural Resource Livelihood and Income Initiatives 216 3. Land Tenure, Resource Management and Benefits: 2001-4 219 The Community Land Rights Process 221 Incomes from Sport Hunting 225 Resource Tenure, the Management Plan and Local Institutions 233 4. Whose Wealth, Land and Resources? 2004 to Present 238 Contests, Hunting Concessions and New Challenges 238 New Institutional Arrangements 248 Concession Contract; Opportunities and Constraints 251 vi 5. Conclusions 255 CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSIONS 1. Overview 258 2. Key Research Findings 260 3. Methodological Reflections 262 REFERENCES CITED 265 APPENDICES 279 LIST OF MAPS, TABLES AND FIGURES Maps Map 1: Location of Field Research ii Map 2: Mozambique: Location, Provinces and Cities 36 Map 3: Protected Areas in Mozambique (2004) 68 Map 4: Provinces and Districts North Niassa 159 Map 5: North Niassa, Sanga and the Niassa Reserve 159 Map 6: Location North Sanga and Programa Chipanje Chetu (PCC) 169 Map 7: Chipanje Chetu and Management Authorities: North Sanga 171 Map 8: Population: North Sanga 173 Map 9: Customary Authorities: North Sanga 180 Tables Table 1: National Governance Features and Complex Adaptive Cycles 64 Table