Initiatives

COMBO

COMBO+ (COnservation, Mitigation and Biodiversity Offsets) is an initiative that supports reconciling economic development and conservation objectives across six countries in Africa and Asia. The COMBO+ partners are working with governments, industry, financial institutions and civil society to define and implement policies aimed at achieving no net loss or a net gain in biodiversity, while contributing to meeting national biodiversity targets aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In Mozambique, the COMBO+ Program is implemented through a partnership between WCS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation (BIOFUND) and the National Directorate of Environment (DINAB)  from the Ministry of Land and Environment (MTA).

Conservation Challenges

In Mozambique, 90% of the population depends directly or indirectly on goods and services provided by biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, over the last decade there has been a significant increase in the exploitation of natural resources in Mozambique (mining, oil and gas, agriculture, forestry and fisheries) and in the creation of basic infrastructure (e.g. roads, power plants, transport lines energy, etc.), with negative and often irreversible environmental and social impacts. 

On the other hand, there is still a huge challenge in the operationalization or implementation of the legal framework, associated with a lack of capacity/resources, lack of coordination between Government entities, weak enforcement and a lack of critical mass of capacity to ensure compliance with legislation, namely guaranteeing the proper implementation of the mitigation hierarchy aimed at reconciling economic development with biodiversity conservation.

Conservation Approach

The COMBO+ program's approach consists of creating the conditions in the country to implement and integrate a No Net Loss / Net Gain of Biodiversity policy, through the appropriate application of the Mitigation Hierarchy as a way of reducing biodiversity losses due to development projects and contributing to the achievement of country’s conservation and climate goals, enhancing ecological integrity. 

The mitigation hierarchy is one of the main means of integrating nature into economic sectors at national level. If properly applied and aligned with national biodiversity and climate objectives, it helps to fully address the expected negative environmental and social impacts of extractive industries (e.g. timber, mining, oil & gas), infrastructure development (e.g. energy production and supply) and other economic development projects, and to achieve neutral or positive outcomes for affected biodiversity and people.

Best practice is to apply rigorously the four-step mitigation hierarchy, with an emphasis on the first step: to anticipate and avoid impacts to the greatest extent possible as ‘prevention is better than cure’! The next steps are to minimise any further impacts and, where feasible, restore project affected biodiversity. Only as a last resort, where residual impacts remain, should these be addressed through biodiversity offsets, which are long-term, additional biodiversity outcomes from conservation actions that restore degraded biodiversity to offset the residual losses.

Goals

Reconciling economic development with biodiversity conservation in Mozambique, contributing to the achievement of the country's conservation and climate goals Improving the application of the mitigation hierarchy in policy and practice is the main goal of COMBO+ Programme’s work.

Activities

Some of the main activities being implemented by COMBO Program in Mozambique, include: 

1. To support and assist governments in the establishment of appropriate governance systems and policies to guide the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy nationally while supporting progress towards national biodiversity objectives 
2. To develop tools, and guidance for spatial planning focusing on avoiding, restoring and offseting impacts on priority biodiversity and support progress towards national biodiversity objectives in coordination with stakeholders 
3. To build capacity of governments, civil society, financial institutions and private sector to understand effective implementation of the mitigation hierarchy and its importance for achieving national biodiversity targets
4. Implementation of pilot projects for training in the application of biodiversity offsets legislation

Threats

• Population growth and uncontrolled development 
• Projects that do not comply with national legislation and do not follow the Mitigation hierarchy 
• Impacts of other human activities not related to development projects

Accomplishments

Our work in recent years has been successful with some important results across areas such as policy, technical information and capacity development. 

Policy

• The Directive on Biodiversity offsets (Ministerial Diploma 55/2022 of December 19) and on independent specialist peer review of EIA from Category A+ activities Ministerial (Diploma no. 118/2022,) was approved and published with technical and financial support from the COMBO+ program. 
• We supported DINAB on the establishment of the Biodiversity Offset Assessment and Monitoring Division (RAACB) under the Environmental Assessment Department 
• We supported the Establishment and operationalization of the Biodiversity Offsets Technical and Scientific Unit (UTC) Technical

Technical tools

• The Mozambique Biodiversity Information System (SIBMOZ) was developed and officially launched on 23 May 2023, in partnership with WCMC and with the support of USAID, 
• We supported the development of the environmental licensing management system (SGLA) led by WCMC 
• COMBO+ developed and made available the implementation manual for the Biodiversity Offsets Diploma which includes the check-list for EIA quality control. 
• We led the development of the historical vegetation map and the first national assessment of the Red List of ecosystems which was officially launched by the Minister of Land and Environment on June 20, 2024 
• We supported DINAB in establishing a registration system for biodiversity offset projects in Mozambique 
• We led the development of the metrics to assess the ecological condition for Miombo, Mangroves and coral reefs, which will allow to determine the losses and gains of biodiversity in the project impact area and offsetting areas 
• We developed a tool to identify restoration areas for offsets programs based on the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM).

Capacity building and outreach

• COMBO+ trained over 500 people from government (central and provincial), private sector and Civil Society Organizations on the application of the mitigation hierarchy (focused on the implementation of the Ministerial Diploma on Biodiversity offsets) 
• We translated to Portuguese and made available online one training course on Environmental Impact Assessment and Mitigation Hierarchy • We developed and made available online one Explanatory video on the Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offsets in Mozambique 
• We developed and made available online six infographics on the implementation of the Mitigation Hierarchy and Biodiversity Offsets in Mozambique.

Biodiversity offsets Pilot Projects

We are implementing four pilot projects to simulate how biodiversity offset actions are implemented on the ground in accordance with the national Ministerial Diploma (Maputo National Park, Licuáti Forest Reserve, Chimanimani National Park and Memba-Mossuril region) as a learning-by-doing process.