The Mozambican government defends the need to massify land-use planning in Mozambique as a way of avoiding the disorderly proliferation of informal settlements and adverse effects on climate change.

According to the Minister of Land and Environment, Ivete Maibaze, territorial disorder is one of the factors that makes the population more vulnerable to extreme events resulting from climate change.

"Practice shows that there is a pressing need for land-use planning in our country, a fact that derives from our geographical location, which is susceptible to extreme climatic events that affect the population and infrastructures, making it essential to have adequate planning for the whole of our country," Maibaze said yesterday (10) at the opening of the 4th Coordinating Council of the department he heads, which is being held under the slogan "Planning the Territory, Building Climate Resilience".

According to the minister, quoted by AIM, the National Territorial Development Plan (PNDT), recently approved by the government, not only defines and establishes the general perspectives and guidelines that should guide the use of the entire national territory and the priorities for intervention on a national scale, but also proposes a territorial development strategy that seeks to enhance the potential of the current model and overcome its weaknesses and dysfunctionalities.

For this reason, Maibaze highlighted the regularization of 364,085 bona fide occupations by customary norms and practices, within the scope of the Safe Land Program, thus giving occupants greater security of land tenure; approval of the National Land Policy and Strategy for its Implementation, as one of the gains achieved by the institution he heads.

Still on the subject of profits, she said that as part of the channeling of the 20% from the forest exploitation tax, 262 communities had benefited, to the tune of 9,592,905.88 meticais (around 150 thousand dollars).

Regarding the event that began on Monday, he explained that it is a unique moment to share experiences of progress and develop strategies for the challenges facing present and future generations.