Restoring degraded forests through ANR

Résumé
In support of the Government of Malawi's National Forestry Landscape Restoration Strategy, and the Dedza District Council's FLR Action Plan, the Department of Forestry (DoF), with support from Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests activity has engaged local communities using data (e.g., from the National FLR Assessment, the National Forest Inventory, and the Deforestation Assessment) to prioritize degradation hotspots in selected Forest Reserves and adjacent landscapes. The degradation hotspots are focal points for "restoration" interventions--including a number of hotspots in/around the Mua- Livulezi Forest Reserve.
Classifications
Région
Ampleur de la mise en œuvre
Ecosystème
Thème
Autre thème
Une seule santé
Défis
Objectifs de développement durable
Autres cibles
Défis
Between 2000 and 2020 the Mua-Livulezi Forest Reserve was extensively deforested and degraded, primarily by illegal and unsustainable charcoal production for the capital city of Lilongwe (and other nearby peri-urban areas). In addition, after some areas were deforested for years community members encroached and began opening new farms within the protected area. Repeated fires associated with agricultural land preparation/clearing had a negative impact on regeneration. Downstream communities experienced soil erosion leading to loss of soil fertility, declining crop production, and increasing frequent periods of food insecurity.
Bénéficiaires
- Nadzikhale Block Management Committee (BMC)
- Ngonoonda BMC
- Kamenya Gwaza BMC
- Kadzungu BMC
Comment les blocs constitutifs interagissent-ils entre eux dans la solution?
Strong local leadership is essential to catalyze support for implementation. However, feedback and evidence of implementation are important to demonstrate progress, and to keep actors engaged. When the TA led the efforts to remove encroachers this "action" incentivized others engaged in the FCM agreement to be accountable and do their part.
Impacts
Subsets of the degradation hotspots (termed degradation/restoration hotspots) were "treated" by communities with firebreaks and ANR, after training delivered by the Department of Forestry (DoF) and the MCHF project. As Malawi transitions to the dry season, there has been a decrease in damaging fire incidents within treated degradation/restoration hotspots. Additionally, regeneration in treated areas is visibly progressing faster than in adjacent untreated sections of the degradation hotspots--demonstrating the potential of the forest for its ecological functionality (and helping to inform the business case for ANR). From 2021 to date a total of 450 hectares have been put under restoration.
In addition, it is worth noting that more and more people are now involved in restoration activities, perhaps reflecting the quality of engagement/sensitization, and the perceived benefits of restoring key ecological functions that benefit those restoring the degraded areas.
Histoire

As mentioned above, in some parts of the reserve, after clearing for charcoal individuals moved in to open farm areas. As a result of multiple years with less than normal rainfall, and periods of intense rains and flooding, more people encroached on the reserve to farm on virgin land. This left parts of the reserve bare, leading to increased runoff, downstream soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, and declining agricultural productivity (and increasing food security).
In 2020, the Government of Malawi with support from USAID and UKaid co-funded Modern cooking for Healthy Forest (MCHF) and began raising awareness of communities on the downstream impacts of deforestation and degradation. Shortly thereafter the partners began delivering training to communities in Traditional Authority Kamenya Gwaza on assisted natural regeneration and fire prevention and management. Community members are organized into BMCs, with the aim of implementing FLR activities in the identified degradation hotspots. these BMCs have continued to implement restoration activities within these hotspots. One of the first activities that the BMCs implemented was to sensitize encroachers of the protected reserve on the impacts of forest land degradation. The efforts led to 60% of the encroachers moving out of the protected area. Later, the Traditional Authority organized to have the remaining encroachers removed from the FR. The areas which have been cleared and farmed remained as "fallow" in 2021, however, regenerants began to reappear and the BMCs have conducted ANR and fire prevention in these areas.
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