Malawian elected Bleansa project focal person
One of the lecturers at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Weston Mwase has been elected to head a body that is in the forefront in fighting climate change in four African countries in southern Africa.
The body, Building a Large Evergreen Network for Southern Africa (Bleansa), has been formed to resuscitate the dormant national agro-forestry steering committee and covers f Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa and the elections took place in Lilongwe recently.
Said Mwase: “Southern Africa is faced with several development challenges that include food insecurity, land degradation, deforestation, HIV/Aids among others. With increasing population rapid deforestation has limited access to forest resources such as fruit, fodder, timber and fuelwood.”
Mwase said the country’s population growth rate of 2.9 percent per annum and with about 50 000 hectares of forests being cleared per year has led to dwindling land sizes such that the soils are highly degraded, providing very low yields of about 0.5 tonnes to 2.6 tonnes per hectare.
According to Mwase, Bleansa will create a network of organisations and innovation platforms for coordination of research and development in agro-forestry, review experiences gained from past research, refine and optimise evergreen agriculture into policy recommendations.
