Chapter 5 Learning from the international land reform experience

3 Country reviews 3.5 Mozambique 3.5.5 Local communities

The Land Law introduced a concept of ‘local communities' which related directly to a spatial area within which a group of people lived and made use of resources. The Technical Annex introduced a legally prescribed methodology for the identification of the community and the related areas, a process that was intended to be in the hands of the particular community and to be one largely of self-definition (with safeguards such as obligatory consensus with neighbours, etc.). Thus, the communities could be anything from a traditional unit based on membership of a clan or chieftaincy to a simple group of neighbours.