Malawi: Community members around Chimpakati in Balaka District have promised to make efforts towards restoring the environment. The project is being taken up under Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP).
The community has shared that if someone visits the area, they would see the urgent need to focus on environment restoration. The community needs to restore the vegetative cover after deforestation has caused severe destruction.
Furthermore, the need to improve soil fertility as the landscape of the communities is mostly barren and dry. As such, the region is more vulnerable to natural disasters due to irresponsible human activity.
Hilda Andrew, from Namikombe Village and a member of the Catchment Management Committee (CMC) spoke to the media on Monday. She reflected that her community has faced numerous challenges in recent years, including food shortages.
“We were introduced to the programme four years ago through a pilot project, and during that period, we managed to establish several forests, and built features like swales, which have had a significant and positive impact in our area.
“This year, we aim to plant 10,000 trees. As of now, we already have 7,976 seedlings ready to be planted as soon as the rains begin and we hope to expand the forests in this area,” she added.
According to Andrew, the community plans to plant trees that will help to improve soil fertility in their fields, saying over the years, the area has experienced destructive runoff and excessive soil erosion at the expense of food crop production at the household level.
Dyson Donald, another community member, said that communities identified four key areas for reforestation.
“We have witnessed the importance of conserving the environment,” he added, citing a forest that took four years to offer vegetative cover thereby testifying significance of agroforestry.
“In addition, we can harvest honey from the beehives we put in the forest,” according to Donald.
Grive Sanjula who is also Group Village Headman Chimpakati disclosed that local leaders have made a strong commitment to continue conserving the environment by planting more trees.
“At first, we were sceptical about the effectiveness of the project. We now see tangible benefits and we have fully embraced it,
“We are not only working and being economically empowered, but we are also transforming our area. It feels like we are being rewarded for working on projects that directly benefit us, which is a rare and valuable opportunity,” he said.