Ex Post Written and Audiovisual Evaluation of the Limpopo National Park Development Project w Ex Post Evaluation
d. Developing chili production A project in Zambia had shown that chili pepper production can benefit communities in two ways: by keeping elephants off the crops, and by generating incomes. This idea was retained in the development plan for the SZ but came to nothing despite several attempts to get it off the ground. This was partly because villagers were not convinced that this is an effective method of repelling elephants, but mainly because a suitable outlet was never found for the chilli peppers, which would have had to have been sold on international markets through agreements with international companies.
e. Other alternatives to be identified through participatory processes As with the rest of the plan, the IGAs that were supposed to promote economic development in the SZ were not identified through a rigorous technical assessment or a participatory diagnostic process. The plan makes no mention of rain-fed agriculture or livestock-rearing, even though these activities are the main sources of income and food security for local people; it is a mixture of ongoing activities and proposals by the experts appointed to produce the plan or LNP teams. IGAs were not identified in a participatory manner due to a lack of human, material and financial resources. 4.3.6. Use of the community share of LNP revenues
In accordance with the law, sixteen percent of LNP revenues (twenty percent of the eighty percent that the State returns to the LNP) have been distributed to the communities that live inside LNP boundaries since 2006. Graph 6 shows that communities have received a total of €220,000 since 2006, giving a yearly mean of €25,000. Assuming that the money is shared between about 25,000 people in fifty villages, every village will receive around €500 per annum for community projects. This comes to about €1 per inhabitant,96 meaning that the fund provides very limited investment opportunities.
96 In 2015, the minimum monthly wage in Mozambique in the agriculture, livestock and hunting sectors was 3,186 Meticais, or around 70 Euros a month.
108 © AFD / September 2016