Some lakeshore communities along Mlowe-Tchalo-Msuku corridor in Rumphi District have planted 7 000 trees on 263 hectares to avert soil erosion due to landslides.
Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Church and Society Programme (CSP) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the communities through their Village Natural Resource Management Committees.
They planted the trees during the 2024/25 National Forestry Season.
Speaking yesterday during CSP project tour, Tchalo Forest security guard Haswel Kondowe said they wanted to halt landslides during the rainy season.
“We plant and conserve trees to prevent future landslides that would kill people and cause siltation in the lake. If all soils go into the lake, we will no longer conduct fishing nor cultivate food crops,” he said.
On his part, Mlowe’s Nkhozi Forest committee chairperson William Mhango said they planted some trees along South Rukuru River banks to prevent water from overflowing.
“Deforestation has caused this river to divert towards residential areas, but we now have trees and a dyke constructed by other development partners,” he said.
CSP project officer Glory Chumbi said self-help groups are for economic empowerment and to reduce people’s reliance on lake and forest products.
“This shoreline community depends on lake resources. So we intervened on both community resilience and economic empowerment,” she said.
