Profiles: Natural resources

All land and natural resources in Mozambique belong to the State. The mandate to promote the sustainable use and conservation of these resources is built into the structure of Government. The Ministry for Co-ordination of Environmental Action (MICOA) has a supervisory role, but various other institutions deal with and regulate natural resources management (NRM), a term that covers soils, water, forests, wildlife, protected areas, coastal areas, the marine environment, minerals and other resources.

Approximately 78% of Mozambique's total area is covered by natural vegetation. This vegetated area consists of high forests (0.8%), low forests (13.7%), thicket (43.3%), wooded grasslands (19.4%) and mangroves (0.5%). Whereas the major part of the total area consists of thicket and wooded grasslands (savannah and bush land), 15 million ha (19% of the total) is classified as open forest (i.e. miombo woodland) and 5 million as dense forest.

About 10 million ha (12.6% of the country) are designated as protected areas. Of this total area, 2.75 million ha are national parks, 1.95 million ha are game reserves, 450 thousand ha are forest reserves and approximately 5.1 million are hunting areas. There are 5 National Parks and 5 Game Reserves, all of which were practically abandoned during the war. There are 12 areas ("coutadas") dedicated to safari hunting which are mainly located in the central and southern parts of the country.