Case of Study of Santaca Pilot Project1 – Matutuíne – Mozambique

I choose the "Case of Study of Santaca Pilot Project1 – Matutuíne – Mozambique". The case study is mainly concerned with forest management for fuelwood production. But even with the soil and water management in the context of agricultural development. The question is how can conserve resources.According to case study three important factors play a role.

• Political – The signing of the Peace Accord in 1992, and the democratic elections in October 1994 encouraged profound and rapid transformation from a centralized to a market economy, and to a decentralized and democratic, participatory system of Government. This area has a strong traditional power structure, which was associated with RENAMO during the civil war in Mozambique. Since the Mozambican Government is from FRELIMO, it was important for the project to link the traditional power structure and the Government bodies to facilitate the dialogue between them.
• Economic – The National reconstruction Plan initiated in 1987 has the main objective of reducing food deficit situation by restoring the productive capacity of the rural sector. This region, due to the forest resources and its location near Maputo City, is the one of the suppliers of fuelwood (Charcoal and firewood) for this urban center and Santaca economy can benefit from a carefully planned fuelwood production. Furthermore, due to its location near to the Elephant national reserve and to prime tourism places, the Santaca community can develop eco-tourism projects in their area.
• Social- The existence of a sacred forest in the area and the danger of its exploitation by outsiders to the community strengthen the need for an intervention in the region.

The forests were viewed as a single concept and not contiguous with the other resources. During the war the people have fled, so did the formation of many communities. Between the individual municipalities and the state, there is only a lack of connection. The communities come together to talk about problems, but they do not support each other. That's a big problem.

The changes in the project area are:

• Associations of producers are now being organized by community members, and there is a will to work with the neighbors in commercial terms.
• The training of 48 community members as community forest officers initiated a change in attitude towards the outsiders and towards resource management in the area.
• The introduction of cash producing activities, as brick making, production of sun-flower and seedlings creates new income possibilities for the community.
• In terms of institutional setup and project implementation, the main changes are:
• The coordination set-up is different. Due to the integrated nature of the project, instead of a project coordinator, the project has a coordination team, comprised by 3 members.
• The project has five components: Forest management, Agriculture, Technology, Markets and Financial systems. The project staff comprises foresters, sociologists, chemical engineers, mechanic engineers, agriculture engineers and economists. Every three months a one-day workshop takes place. During the workshops the staff discusses the component’s activities and together with the other teams redefined the planned activities.