President Lazarus Chakwera has backed efforts by the World Conservation Society, International Conservation Caucus Foundation and the Rain Forest Trust to conserve Africa’s miombo forests.
Miombo is a Swahili word referring to brachystegia trees that constitute the largest dry tropical forest ecosystem in Africa and a major source of water, food, shelter, timber, electricity generation and tourism.
Dialling up the cause to conserve the most extensive tropical seasonal woodlands during a high-level meeting in New York, US, Chakwera said “the natural wonder” is a vital ecosystem that sustains the livelihoods of millions across southern Africa.
“Stretching across more than 2.7 million square kilometres and spanning several countries, including Malawi, the miombo woodlands are a bastion and central bank of natural treasures for our planet,” he said.
The President highlighted that the biodiversity in the miombo forest regulates the health as well as quality of the food, medicine and materials the region depends on.
However, the seasonal woodlands have come under siege from criminal activities due to low awareness.
He stated: “As I speak, there is lawless logging in miombo forests. There is dangerous deforestation in the miombo forests. There is careless charcoal production in the miombo forests.
“The net effect of all of this is the decimation of miombo’s biodiversity, much to the detriment of the millions of people whose livelihood depends on it. Without this, they have no natural defence against the blows of climate impacts.”
Chakwera reaffirmed Malawi’s commitment to work with Mozambique to reforest the depleted sites and empower local communities to become stewards of the endangered forest.
He pledged that the two countries will work together to make the Maputo Declaration on Sustainable Management of Miombo Forests signed in 2022 work and mobilise resources for research and sustainable practices to enhance forests’ resilience to climate change
The miombo forest comprises the savanna woodlands of southern Africa that are dominated by trees of the legume subfamily. It is a belt of expensive timber and African wildlife.
The dry deciduous forest span 1.9 million square kilometres across central and southern Africa.
Rural communities across the region depend heavily on the woodlands for building materials, fruits, honey, mushrooms, medicine and more.
It also provides firewood and charcoal, three-quarters of energy for cooking and heating in the region.
However, green cover is disappearing faster than it is being replenished due to rapid population growth, agricultural expansion and increasing demand for fuelwood.
Mozambique’s President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi aims to reverse deforestation of the miombo and promote sustainable resource development.
“Lives are so intertwined with the miombo that sometimes it’s actually difficult to separate the two,” says African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership Edwin Tambara.
He recalls how the surrounding miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one.
“You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, ‘OK, let me go into the forest’ and she’d come back with some leaves. . . It’s either they’re boiled and you have to sniff them or something—and you’d be sorted,” Tambara says.
Eleven countries have signed the new deal to protect the endangered miombo forest being spearheaded by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.
“We need to transform the intentions of the Maputo Declaration into concrete and sustainable acts, towards achieving the goals of regional and global countries and the ambitious target of achieving the 2030 objectives of the United Nations global biodiversity framework,” he said at the end of the International Conference on the Miombo Forest in April.
