Trafigura – one of the largest global companies in the trade of raw materials, including hydrocarbons – has announced its collaboration with the government to develop large-scale forest restoration projects.
The agreement was formalised during the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and was signed by the ambassador and head of the Mozambican delegation at the summit, Alfredo Nuvunga, and the Trafigura representative, Hannah Hauman.
In a statement, the Ministry of Land and Environment explained that the agreement involves the Miombo Regional Forest Restoration Project, which is part of the implementation of the Maputo Declaration on the Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Forest Ecosystem.
The Miombo forest, which covers a vast region of southern Africa, plays a crucial role in the livelihoods of around 300 million people, as well as providing essential resources such as water, food, wood and even electricity.
‘The aim is to produce carbon credits for commercialisation on the voluntary market,’ said Alfredo Nuvunga, pointing out that, in addition to Mozambique, the Republic of Congo has also signed a similar memorandum with Trafigura. Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are in the final stages of analysing the memoranda, which could be signed soon.
The Ministry of Land and Environment clarified that the agreement involves the Miombo Regional Forest Restoration Project, which comes as part of the implementation of the Maputo Declaration on the Sustainable and Integrated Management of the Forest Ecosystem
Mozambique, which is leading the Miombo regional initiative, undertakes to continue coordinating political integration between the countries of the region and to provide up-to-date information on forest carbon emission levels, as well as on the conservation and forest management programmes underway in the country.
‘Our commitment is to ensure the political management of the process, with the involvement of all the member states in the region, guaranteeing that policies and programmes are aligned to promote sustainability,’ he said.
Meanwhile, according to the source, Trafigura is committed to ‘mobilising funding, providing technical assistance for the generation of forest restoration projects and developing mechanisms for the commercialisation of carbon credits’. The company also guaranteed that ‘restoration efforts will bring environmental, climate and social benefits to local communities’.
In the last four years, Mozambique has lost 875,453 hectares of forest, with the provinces of Niassa and Zambézia being the worst affected. Although the pace of deforestation will have slowed by 2022, the impact remains significant. The Miombo forest, which also covers ten other southern African countries, such as Angola, is particularly vulnerable to illegal logging and agricultural expansion.
The head of state, Filipe Nyusi, discussed this issue emphatically during an event in New York on 24 September 2023, at which he announced the raising of more than 500 million dollars (31.6 billion meticals) for the Miombo Initiative.
‘We have managed to convince the world that the Miombo must be protected. This requires financial resources, but also transparent management, because the Miombo doesn’t just belong to Mozambique, it’s a common asset of the region,’ said the statesman.
The Miombo is considered the largest tropical dry forest ecosystem in the world, covering around two million square kilometres and providing essential environmental services for millions of people in 11 southern African countries. However, the ecosystem faces a number of threats, from deforestation to degradation caused by human activities such as agriculture and livestock farming.
According to the government, which developed the project’s action plan, the planned initiatives are based above all on mapping and restoring the areas most affected by deforestation, but also on monitoring and developing alternative income-generating projects to forest exploitation.
