No abstract

The Nacala corridor in Mozambique is one of the main host regions for large-scale agricultural investments (LAIs) in Africa. LAI companies produce crops for export, with scarcely known impacts on small-scale farmers and the environment. We conducted 101 interviews with smallscale farmers living near an LAI to elicit their perceptions of the LAI's impacts on their own land use and the environment. Additionally, we used remote sensing to assess land use change between 2000 and 2015 in two study areas in Guruè and Monapo districts. The results show that LAIs caused deforestation both directly and indirectly. The main environmental impact perceived by farmers was that LAIs had blocked their access to rivers. Positive spillovers did occur, but could not compensate for the negative impacts experienced. A peaceful coexistence of LAIs and smallscale farmers in the Nacala corridor is only possible if existing injustices around the occupation of land are resolved.

The Ecosystem Service (ES) concept needs to be expressed and communicated effectively to be successfully integrated into decision-making. In this paper, we conducted a review of relevant documents to Mozambique's spatial planning by performing a content analysis based on ES categories. Results revealed that of the seven Land Use Planning (LUP) documents analyzed, only the National Development Strategy referenced ES explicitly. However, all documents made implicit references to provisioning ES. Five out of the seven LUP documents referred to regulating and cultural ES. None of the LUP documents made any explicit or implicit references to supporting ES. A Strengths, Weakness Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis towards ES integration in LUP based on these documents showed that the major strength was acknowledging the need to preserve ecological equilibrium and ensure sustainability. The periodical revision of tools and participatory approaches in LUP opens opportunities for integrating ES into LUP processes. This integration could be achieved by establishing a SEA legal framework based on LUP and Environment legal frameworks assisted by a set of common planning tools that consider ES as an additional indicator applied to spatial planning in Mozambique.