Protecting an Old Forest in a New Way
As Malawi’s deforestation crisis mounts, the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests project (MCHF) and the Department of Forestry are piloting a community engagement approach to increase knowledge about healthy forests and spur regeneration
Alifani Bicent, 37, remembers why he started making charcoal in the first place: to pay his school fees. In 2008, he learned the practice from a neighbor and for three years he relied on charcoal to keep him in school. On some days, he found himself cutting down more than 10 trees.
“My family was not happy because it is a hard job, and nothing about it is healthy,” he says.
That is true. The charcoal business requires massive efforts and has little pay off. It is also fraught with risk due to policing, theft, and violence. When Bicent finished school, he traded his axe for the hoe and dedicated his time to farming. Now, he is married and sits on the village natural resources committee, a locally-led initiative that is proving communities can play a role in protecting neighboring forests. Using consensus building and cooperation among neighbors, today he is regenerating the same forests that he once plundered.
His village is located adjacent to the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, the largest such reserve in Malawi and an important watershed for the urban population of the capital Lilongwe. Half of Dzalanyama’s almost 100,000 hectares has already been deforested for charcoal; another 25,000 hectares is heavily degraded.
The Village Natural Resources Committee forms part of a restoration strategy being led by the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF) project, an initiative funded by USAID and UKaid to curb the production and use of illegal charcoal. MCHF is helping the communities to learn that with teamwork and simple forest management practices including fire prevention and assisted natural regeneration (ANR), degraded forests can bounce back much faster. The strategy is also showing the Department of Forestry that rural communities are willing to contribute to the protection and management of nearby forests that provide products and services that contribute to improving rural livelihoods
The community where Bicent lives is protecting some 300 hectares of heavily degraded forest in the Dzalanyama Reserve, and MCHF has developed their capacity in forest management. This includes selecting tree shoots that emerge from the natural root systems underground and maintaining an extensive system of firebreaks to protect the regenerating forest from a bushfire, which would essentially defeat any new growth.
This approach to reforestation relies on the people’s self-interest in having a healthy forest and enjoying the benefits of the ecosystem services they provide. MCHF is currently targeting dozens of communities living in forest reserve buffer zones in central and northern Malawi and provides each of them with forest management tool kits, including shovels, pruning shears, and machetes. Field staff helps each community to create an action plan, and then works side-by-side with community members in the forest to weed, thin tree shoots, and construct effective firebreaks.
“The main goal is to see the forest restored to how it was before. A natural forest can provide us with many more benefits including firewood, fruits, mushrooms, and animals,” explains the senior group village headman, Yohane Bikiyele, the most powerful local administrator who has thrown his support behind the initiative.
In the first six months of regeneration, community members are already seeing results. Members share the duties of working and patrolling this section of forest to watch for intruders or bush fires. The women have begun harvesting mushrooms, firewood is much closer to the home, and animals like antelope have been spotted. There are seven women sitting on the village natural resource committee and their participation is invaluable.
“If the forests are destroyed, we suffer the most. We depend on the forest for firewood and food, and when trees are gone, it means we have to walk even further,” they say.
Proof is in the Plants
In a perfect world, professional forest rangers from Malawi’s Department of Forestry would patrol and protect the country’s Forest Reserves, use vehicles, and lead outreach programs, but the Department is underfunded and lacks political support. For the past 20 years, in lieu of investing in effective planning tools, equipment, and staff, the department has pushed a tree plantation agenda and ignored regeneration, often clearing regenerating indigenous natural forests to plant exotic tree species. In addition, they have falsely assumed that communities will not manage forests unless they are paid. Now, with the support of MCHF, the department is shifting its strategy to focus first on protecting remaining natural forests, second to restoring degraded natural forests, and third to planting supplemental tree plantations.
“Most of the forests in Malawi that are standing are natural forests, and we know you can get there faster and achieve more if we focus on protecting what is already in the ground. Over the last year, we have diverted our attention from tree planting to forest restoration, both natural and assisted regeneration. Now we are working hard to convince higher level administrators this is the way to go,” explains Dr. Clement Chilima, Director of the Department of Forestry.
ANR is more cost efficient than tree planting, where mortality rates can be as high as 90% in the first five years. But for ANR to work, extension agents are critical in raising the local community’s awareness about the importance of the forests. In selected highly degraded areas or “degradation hotspots”, MCHF is working with the Department of Forestry to demonstrate that communities are capable of being part of the solution. And perhaps more important, the extension is reaching communities with the key message that a degraded forest does not mean a dead forest.
As the village committee continues managing this section of the forest reserve, charcoal producers come and go to see if they can pick off a tree or two. Instead of confrontation, Bicent and his neighbors take a more practical and educational approach, hoping instead to convert poachers and outsiders to their forest friendly views.
“We meet with charcoal makers, poachers from both within and outside our community and we explain to them why we are trying to protect this forest. Many of these people have never received any information on the services forests provide,” explains Bicent.
Supporting the Forest Guards
In the past, Forest Guards, who are local villagers employed by the Department of Forestry, were expected to patrol thousands of hectares within the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve. In some ways, the guards, who receive a small salary and little to no support from the government, have actually exacerbated deforestation and helped shape the public’s perception that forestry officials are not only inept, but also corrupt.
Midiais Midwa is a guard in Dzalanyama and he says that as the demand for charcoal increases and forests dwindle, his job has become more difficult and increasingly dangerous due to violent charcoal producers. However, with the support of village natural resources committees, he feels relieved.
“It is difficult for us to do the amount of work they expect all alone. When the committee members and the whole village are involved, we can cover much more ground,” explains forest guard Misaias Midwa. “When everybody agrees to protect the forests, it makes it easy to maintain relationships and return our forests to health.”
