Maputo — Mozambique is already a victim of climate change, "but we cannot just wait for a world agreement before we act", declared Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Tuesday.

Speaking after swearing the 11 provincial governors into office, Guebuza said that among the challenges they would face are the natural disasters to which Mozambique is exposed, such as droughts, floods and cyclones, which are likely to occur with greater frequency, due to the effects of global warming.

In the Mozambican government's first official reaction to the December UN Conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Guebuza expressed disappointment at the failure to reach binding agreements. "Despite all the work spent preparing the Copenhagen conference, and the negotiating capacity of the states involved, the practical results expected from this world event were not achieved", he said.

Nonetheless, he regarded the very fact that the conference was held "as a great victory for humanity, in that it strengthened the awareness of state and non-state actors about our collective responsibility for reversing the catastrophic scenario that the pace and scale of climate change could induce".

Guebuza warned that in the provinces the governors must now run, climate change could add to food and nutritional insecurity. During their five year term of office, the governors could expect extreme weather events - cyclones blowing in from the Indian Ocean, floods on the river valleys, or increased drought.

"We have no efficient means of preventing these natural disasters from striking us", said Guebuza. "But we do have ways of reducing the vulnerability of our people to their impact. We cannot affect their frequency and magnitude. But we do have the capacity to lead our people to re-orient their lives so that these disasters do not interfere with their food security".

"Each of our provinces already has some capacity to present and respond to these disasters, but this capacity is far from the ideal response", he continued.

He pointed to a series of programmes under way to reduce vulnerability to disasters - including the resettlement of people from flood prone areas to higher ground, the drive to ensure that each school student plants at least one tree per year, and the programme to ensure community forests for each village.

"You have the noble mission of making a valuable contribution so that Mozambicans can live normally, in the countryside and in the cities, even when faced with natural disasters", Guebuza told the governors. "Fighting against natural disasters is part of our national agenda for the struggle against poverty, and we must continue to transform these disasters into opportunities for development".