Three villages in Machinga have signed a forest co-management agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to manage forest resources in their respective forest blocks.
The signing ceremony took place Friday at Naungu School in Traditional Authority (T/A) Sitola’s area in the district where communities from Mliwo, Naungu and Kwilasya villages committed themselves to saving their blocks from charcoal production, encroachment, uncontrolled bush fires and other forest malpractices.
Mliwo, Naungu and Kwilasya are part of the Liwonde forest reserve measuring 24 789 hectares which boasts of natural wood though being heavily deforestated by charcoal producers.
Assistant regional forest officer for the South responsible for extension, Sabinas Manda said her ministry has already signed forestry co-management agreements with four other villages in Machinga.
“Nkalo, Dalamponda, Ntawira and Chindenga already signed the agreement this year as the co-management agreement has registered some success,” Manda said.
She called on the new villages to work towards conserving the forest reserves rather than destroying them.
Block management committees manage the forest reserves on behalf of communities, according to the co-management guidelines.
Naungu block measures 1 208 hectares, Mliwo block is 1 333 hectares while Kwilasya forest block measures 1 221 hectares.
T/A Sitola pledged to be in the forefront in conserving the Liwonde forest reserve describing it as a “beauty” of Machinga. He said he would deal with those that will destroy the reserve by any means.
According to Forest Act of 1997, the blocks remain property of the Government of Malawi as communities are only given users’ rights.
District forestry officer for Machinga, Paul Muhosha however, bemoaned rampant forest malpractices at Chaone and Mchilima where cultivation and settlement in the reserve is taking place.
Forestry office in the district has embarked on law enforcement exercise as tonnes of charcoal and firewood have been confiscated to choke the production in the Malosa and Liwonde reserves.—Mana
