Coastal resources in Mozambique are vital for local coastal communities, many of whom live in abject poverty. These resources also hold significant value for a number of different sectors, many of which supply expanding global consumer markets. Although these activities provide many opportunities for economic development and income generation, global patterns indicate growing levels of economic inequality between custodians of these resources and those exploiting them, as well as an increasing incidence of poverty. In the tourism sector, in particular, external investors have often initiated tourism ventures to the detriment of adjacent local communities. Benefit sharing is a popular term to describe interventions to redress inequalities, and thus alleviate poverty. The expression was originally developed in the context of bioprospecting, but today the term is adopted much more widely by different sectors. In the coastal context, understanding remains poor as to what benefit sharing really means in practice, and the linkages between benefit distribution and poverty reduction have not been fully explored.
