Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold a large share of the world’s land area under customary systems. However, there is a tremendous gap between what is held by communities in practice and what is formally recognised by governments.

Providing extension and advisory services is expensive. There are salaries to be paid, transporta­tion and operational funds to be provided, buildings to be rented or built, demonstration plots to maintain, and continued education to be offered to the extension staff.

The importance of forests for climate change mitigation and species conservation, as water stores and oxygen producers, soil protectors and humus providers, is well known. However, over 13 million hectares of forest are lost each year, mainly in the tropics.

Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide; that is an area the size of Austria and Switzerland combined. 90 percent of this deforestation involves tropical forests.

As part of its commitment to local community development in Mozambique, the Community Land initiative (iTC), a project financed by a group of European donors, is supporting part of a honey production chain in Mozambique, specifically in Sussundenga district, Manica province.