Anabela Lemos / Justiça Ambiental!

The exploitation of Mozambique’s resources

Mozambique is rich in natural resources, but the extraction of these resources has largely benefited foreign corporations and government elites rather than local communities. Projects like mega dams and gas extraction devastate the environment while displacing thousands of people without just compensation. Promoted under the guise of “development,” these projects strip communities of their land, rivers and forests, while the promised benefits of employment and economic growth never materialise. JA! is one of the few groups in Mozambique that consistently speaks out against these dangerous projects.

Lemos’s path to activism

Lemos was born in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1953. Her activism journey began in 1998 when she led a grassroots campaign against a Danish-backed waste incineration plant near her home in Matola, an industrial hub near the capital Maputo. After a two-year struggle, Lemos and a team of activists, supported by international partners like Greenpeace, halted the project.

“When we began, there were no organisations in Mozambique fighting for these causes,” Lemos said. “So, we created a movement. We mobilised people, reached out to Greenpeace and connected with groups in South Africa and US, and gradually, our network grew, and that’s how we expanded.»

This victory taught Lemos the power of holding transnational corporations (TNCs) responsible in their home countries and inspired communities across Mozambique to contact Lemos to help fight against disastrous “development” projects in their region. This work led Lemos to co-found the environmental organisation Livaningo in 1998. In 2004, Lemos left Livaningo to establish JA!, with the goal of placing human rights and climate justice at the core of environmental activism.

JA!’s global fight for environmental justice

Debido a los estrechos vínculos entre las ETN y el gobierno mozambiqueño, JA! lleva a menudo su lucha por la justicia medioambiental al extranjero. Una de las iniciativas de mayor éxito de la organización es la «Campaña Di No al Gas». Lanzada en 2007 en la provincia mozambiqueña de Cabo Delgado, la campaña desafía a las empresas de combustibles fósiles, los bancos y los Estados ricos que explotan las reservas de gas del país. La provincia alberga actualmente los tres mayores proyectos de GNL de África: Mozambique LNG, dirigido por TotalEnergies; Coral FLNG, dirigido por ENI y ExxonMobil; y Rovuma LNG, dirigido por ExxonMobil, ENI y la Corporación Nacional China del Petróleo.

JA! has been especially impactful in countering the construction of Mozambique LNG. The organisation has identified over 23 countries involved in financing the project and has partnered with civil society organisations from each country to strengthen its campaign.

“We amplify the voices of the affected communities, and we fight on the national and international level,” said Lemos. “Without international support, we could be crushed, and the world wouldn’t know.”

Described as a “mega-carbon and social bomb”, Mozambique LNG threatens to worsen Cabo Delgado’s existing insecurities. The discovery of gas reserves in the region has fuelled conflict and economic collapse, turning nearly one million residents into internally displaced people. The ongoing insurgency has killed 6,000 people since 2017. JA!’s international campaign scrutinising the project has delayed its construction and exposed critical issues like the country’s rising debt, which has ballooned from 50 to 130 per cent of GDP, further fuelling militancy.

In 2021, JA! supported a legal case led by Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland to oppose the United Kingdom’s export credit agency’s funding of Mozambique LNG. JA! provided critical evidence for the case, documenting how gas extraction has coerced thousands of people to move, destroyed livelihoods and contributed to escalating violence in Cabo Delgado. Although the case was ultimately dismissed, it increased scrutiny of foreign fossil fuel financing and contributed to the United Kingdom’s decision to end all overseas fossil fuel financing from 2021 onwards.

Total has tried to undermine the ‘Say No to Gas Campaign’ by creating a 200-million-EUR fund for local organisations, shifting the burden onto civil society to address the very problems they helped create. Meanwhile, JA! remains steadfast in its mission to halt natural gas extraction in Mozambique entirely, driven by its foundational principle of phasing out existing fossil fuel infrastructure and preventing the construction of new projects. The organisation argues that if the project proceeds, it will lock Mozambique into a fossil fuel-dependent economy for decades, despite the science and climate impacts showing an urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.

Since 2016, JA! has also been a strong voice in international negotiations for a UN-binding treaty on TNCs and human rights. As JA!’s co-founder and a member of Friends of the Earth International’s Executive Committee, Lemos actively campaigns for stronger international regulations to hold corporations accountable for their actions in countries like Mozambique.

Empowering communities and challenging corporate power

A key principle of JA!’s work is empowering communities to speak for themselves. Since its founding, JA! has never imposed its views on the communities it supports. Instead, they provide technical support, build capacity and ensure local people are at the forefront of campaigns. From raising awareness about the dangers of open-pit coal mining to challenging gas extraction, industrial tree plantations, mega-dams and land grabbing, JA!’s campaigns are always rooted in environmental protection and the priorities of affected communities.

“To fight for a healthy environment, we must also fight for social justice,” said Lemos. “Defending people’s rights means understanding the context they live in and addressing their needs.»

The organisation’s methodology is five-fold. After being approached by a local community, JA! conducts impact assessments on the environmental justice issue at hand. They then link the community to national, and if budget allows, international struggles to foster solidarity and share strategies. When necessary, JA! conducts further research given the technical difficulty of the campaign and concludes by targeting the companies and governments behind the environmental injustice, pursuing legal action whenever possible. JA! has also set up a ‘Seeding Environmental Justice’ school for students, communities and organisations to spread its methodology across generations.

One of JA!’s most significant achievements is working with local communities to delay the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam. If built, the dam would displace over 1,400 families and impact more than 200,000 people downstream. As the co-coordinator of the Mphanda Nkuwa Dam campaign, Lemos has been working to increase awareness of the project’s dangers and consequences for over 24 years.

“JA!’s greatest achievement is standing firm in our principles,” said Lemos. “We will always remain true to our convictions.”

Delaying this project is a significant victory, as it has revealed the Mozambican government’s efforts to coerce community consent. It has also exposed the failure of TNCs to adhere to their home countries’ environmental and human rights standards when operating abroad.

Resisting Threats and Building Resilience

Lemos and JA!’s work does not come without significant risk. In a country where civil society is shrinking and government repression is growing, JA! faces constant threats. JA!’s office was broken into, with data and hard drives stolen, and friends, colleagues and partners working with JA! on the frontlines have been killed. Despite this, Lemos and JA! remain defiant and have developed strategies to mitigate risks, such as decentralising leadership within the organisation and building a broad base of community support.

“We always say the revolution can be peaceful,” said Lemos. “The biggest revolution we can have is with our mouths, our words and the changes we demand.»

The fight for environmental justice in Mozambique is far from over. Lemos believes that real change can only come when we move away from a profit-driven model of development and toward one that prioritises people and the environment. She works to promote a culture where everyone is empowered to defend their rights and speak out against injustice, and insists collaboration between lawyers, communities, academics, journalists and social movements is necessary to drive societal change. Through their work, Lemos and JA! show that another world is possible, where communities have the right to say no to destructive projects, and environmental and social justice prevails.