Drive to make Zomba Mountain green again

Z

omba Plateau is one of the picture-ready tourist destinations in Malawi, but the country’s second highest peak is fast losing its green glory.

As lush forests disappear, locals endure lengthening hikes in search of firewood, fruits and construction materials.

In the steep slopes, travellers dribble past massive logs for timber being shoved downhill by perspiring men as women and children carry massive firewood bundles on their heads. Meanwhile, rickety trucks hauling timber and poles to Zomba City and beyond flash past.

From the snaky steep road, newcomers and old-timers wonder how the iconic thick forests vanished. However, regulars remember the deafening din of ruthless chainsaws that sent decades-old trees crashing to the ground within seconds.

The fierce scramble left sawdust polluting the air, monkeys homeless and noise fouling the serenity of Chawe Peak.

Within months, the sawyers had depleted forests close to Mulunguzi Dam, the once-leafy city’s largest source of water

Now rainwater racing down the slopes scrapes topsoil in its trails, burying the dam in silt.

Siltation is a common crisis in the agriculture-dependent nation of at least 20 million people. A hectare (ha) loses 30 tonnes of fertile soil every year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

As the groaning chainsaws fall silent in Zomba Mountain, guests at Sunbird Ku Chawe can see the silted dam dwindling in the distance. Its levels keep falling due to siltation, drought and loss of green cover.

“The curtain is torn,” lamented a concerned regular. “Before the pine plantation was plundered, who would have imagined that the dam would be visible from the hotel?”

Some question why policymakers rush to cash in on protected forests and hesitate to replant, but others say the mature trees had to go.

“Trees are like crops,” argues Zomba Mountain Plantation assistant manager Mathews Mkwapatira. “We’ve to harvest them when they mature lest they go to waste,”

For him, forests are a gift that keeps giving if replenished at the speed of harvesting.

“The big issue is that we aren’t replanting as fast as we are harvesting these trees,” says Mkwapatira, who has worked with the Department of Forestry for 32 years, spending half a decade in Zomba.

The 5 064ha timber plantation, established in 1913, has been under siege amid piling population pressure and a scanty pushback.

Assistant forestry officer Brian Mwamlowe rues low funding and dramatic cuts in the plantation’s staff from over 1 000 to 90 workers.”

He explains: “Due to high unemployment, most Zomba residents have to raid the mountain to eat.

“For decades, bare grounds kept growing because we’d few workers to plant and protect trees. Most of the workers who survived retrenchment in the 1990s are too old for their work.”

The World Bank is supporting the Malawi Government to restore the plantation under the Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (Mwasip).

Last year, staff and the surrounding communities kick-started the initiative to make 200ha green again by 2026.

They planted some 66 000 pine trees across 50ha  last rainy season and will replicate the feat for three years.

The project also targets private investors to restore 1 000 ha in Zomba Timber Plantation, according to plantation manager Dan Mbewu.

“We will plant 50ha every year,” he says. “This is a huge boost as the replanting went as slow as 10ha per year.”

Mwasip is also strengthening forest management, firefighting and law enforcement while creating jobs for local communities involved in tree planting, weeding and clearing firebreaks.

“Few hands couldn’t prepare the ground and make pits in time. For the first time, we have done all this before the rainy season and the trees planted last year are receiving proper care,” Mbewu states.

With jobs for locals, furious forest fires are fading.

“We are building a good relationship with neighbouring communities. We used to record more than five episodes a year, but didn’t experience any forest fire in 2023. The fires are mostly caused by people who do not reap any benefit from trees,” Mbewa explains.

The conservation work covers the western slopes of the Zomba Plateau, the source of the Namitembo River that splits Chingale floodplain on the way to the Shire.

The country’s longest river, the sole outlet of Lake Malawi, turns dynamos that generate 90 percent of the electricity for the national grid.

Under Mwasip, communities in Chingale and Shire Highlands are conserving land, water and degraded landscapes.

Selected catchment conservation groups and individuals receive capital for businesses that do not harm the environment.

This has weaned some from illicit charcoal producers from raiding forests.

The mountain forest in Zomba recharges streams that pour into Mulunguzi Dam and underground rivers that feed Lake Chilwa, which sustains the livelihoods of over 1.5 million people.

Mbewu states: “After 30 years, the government and Malawians will get revenue from selling timber.

“This is also a major win for people downstream who will rip the benefits of reductions in disasters, loss of fertile soil and silted rivers.”