Each passing day, thousands of charcoal bags enter the main cities and towns of Malawi. One would think such people have personal woodlots from which they cut down trees for charcoal production. Unfortunately, they do not.
With a population of about 18 million people of which only 10.8 percent have access to power from the main grid, the demand for energy is high in Malawi. It has put the forests prone to destruction. This has become an excuse for some quarters of the society as they justify why charcoal and firewood trade should not be banned. “We need an alternative source of energy first. What shall we use if charcoal is banned”, they say, at the expense of the environment and its associated negative effects.
However, communities that have had an encounter with the effects of climate change, which partly, is a result of deforestation, are aware that Mother Nature takes no excuse when nature is violated. They have understood the concept “you reap what you sow”.
In partnership with the Irish Aid, the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM), promotes tree planting and management to ensure communities regain the lost forest cover that once characterized their areas.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) publication (Forests for resilience to natural, climatic and human-induced disasters, 2019), forests and trees play a significant role in supporting livelihood. It says when sustainably managed, forests are vital safety nets and life-supporting assets and act as buffers that help communities to withstand extreme weather and other shocks.
FAO says, forests and trees already contribute to both building resilience to threats and crises as well as resolving the underlying causes of food insecurity, under-nutrition and poverty in multiple ways – by providing wood fuel for cooking, edible products, material for shelter, conserving water resources and buffering extreme weather conditions
Through a local campaign dubbed, Dziko Lathu, Nthaka Yathu, NASFAM encourages communities to take responsibility over the affairs of their area that have an effect on their farming business and livelihood. Climate change mitigation is one such area that requires concerted efforts at community and national level.
It is with such conviction that communities in Mangochi and Machinga Districts decided to embark on managing natural regeneration of trees in their areas, dubbed as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) program.
“Today, Nsakalo Hill is dressed in green, covering around 275 hectares of land, because community members decided to change the narrative. They agreed to work together by establishing by-laws that govern forest management with support from their Traditional leaders and development organisations like NASFAM”, said the Assistant Forestry Officer for Machinga District, Annie Zimba, during the launch of this year’s tree management activities organized by NASFAM in the area of group village headman Thomu, Traditional Authority Chiwalo, Machinga District.
“They have achieved this feat because they understood and appreciated the importance of forests to human life. They manage the forest voluntarily”, she added.
Tarcizio Chimbwanya, NASFAM Association Business Manager for the area said it is impossible for a single organization to achieve such success. There is need for concerted efforts from all stakeholders and players if communities are to see real transformation in the area of reforestation.
“A lot of effort is required to mobilize a community initiatives like these. It is only possible with proper coordination among stakeholders. The goal is to have sustainable forestry initiatives which are wholly owned and managed by communities themselves. With a forest like this, following proper forest management guidelines, this community will no longer lack wood fuel in the coming years. If they sustainably manage it, in the long term, it will improve the water resources in the area, it will be a source of forest food such as mushroom, honey and many other benefits.
“We are glad that as an organization, we have helped the community to reclaim the hill from deforestation. We are working with more communities both in Machinga and Mangochi providing them with technical and management support, so that one day they can look back and say that it was worth investing in reforestation efforts like these,” said Tarcizio.
In 2018/20 tree planting season, NASFAM changed its focus from tree planting to planting and management, with more focus placed on management. NASFAM Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Betty Chinyamunyamu, emphasised that going forward, NASFAM would support focus on tree management more because regenerated plants have high chances of survival because they already have established roots in the ground. She then appealed to forests users not to dig out roots when they cut down trees because by doing so, it kills the tree completely. This year alone, NASFAM has facilitated the establishment of over 104 natural regeneration sites across the country.