Encroachers attack Thyolo

by Raphael Mweninguwe

Poison Zakaliya, a father of eight, is also taking care of six orphaned grandchildren. He has three acres of land on which he grows crops to fend for his large family. Having used the piece of land for years, the soil has now lost its fertility and he cannot reap as much as he used to in the past from the same piece of land. Hence he encroached into Thyolo Mountain, a forest reserve.	Down and out: The extent to which Thyolo Mountain has been deforested
Apart from Thyolo Mountain, Kalulu and Thyolomwani hills have also been heavily encroached and deforested. But little did people like Zakaliya know that their encroaching on the mountains would have far reaching consequences on their lives. The encroached hills are catchment areas from which several rivers in the district originate. With the heavy deforestation that came with people encroachinge on the hills, rivers no longer flow during the dry season because they dry up quickly. The wetlands are no longer the wetlands they used to be. The local communities and their village leaders are asking government through their MPs to drill more boreholes in the district because most of the rivers they relied upon for their day to day water supply have run dry. Zakaliya says most perenial rivers do not flow throughout the dry season as they used to. He does not know why this is so. All he can remember is that in his youth days such was not the case. Vincent Mawaya, 34, who also owns a farm on one of the mountains, knows the scarcity of water was created by human activities such as deforestation, but says there is little that villagers can do to the salvage the Situation because the population in the district has grown so much that there isn't enough land for everyone. Hence the encroachment into the protected catchment areas. But Elisha Namangale, MP.for Thyolo West, says it is not true that people in Thyolo farm in protected areas because they do not have land. "People have land on which to grow crops and I know they are doing this [encroaching] deliberately," he says. To put the situation under control the government is now trying to intervene albeit too late now because-almost all the catchment areas-have already been heavily encroached. Thyolo Mountains, Kalulu and Thyolomwani hills cover an area of 50.76 square kilometres. Each one of them has an area of 13.21 square kilometres, 28.23 square kilometres and 9.32 square kilometres respectively.
Zakaliya: Rivers no longer flow	Already this year 10 people from Thyolo district were arrested in October, for encroaching on the mountain. Foster Solijala, Deputy Regional Officer in the South, says government has resorted to arresting people as a lasting solution to deforestation which has been going on for years. He says the situation has grown from bad to worse and the worst is yet to come. Apart from arresting encroachers, villagers in Thyolo have agreed to uproot all the crops grown on the hills. This was an agreement villagers and their local leaders reached recently at a meeting held to launch the K1.6 million Masaf re-afforestation project.

But the decision to uproot the crops is not going on well with farmers who own farms in the mountains. Zakaliya says uprooting the crops means killing those people who are farming there.

"This is bad. Why don't they wait until harvest time? They can then plant their trees after we have harvested our crops," he says.

It is not only in Thyolo where catchment areas are under threat. In Blantyre the Michiru Mountain is under attack, the Ndirande Mountain is gone and the Soche Mountain slowly but surely turning grey. In Nsanje the Matandwe Forest is also heavily encroached.

Unless something is done now the whole country is threatened by a creeping desert, environment experts say.

Robert Kafakorna of Coordination Unit for the Rehabilitation of the Environment (Cure) says at the current rate of deforestation the country is going through will lead desertification unless something is done to avert the situation.

The country is currently experiencing deforestation at the rate of 1.6 percent which the Department of Forestry translates into 50,000 hectares on indigenous trees being cut each year.

Kafakoma says government policy on forestry is good "but it is not being implemented. " He says government should implement the policy if deforestation is to be controlled.

The goal of the National Forestry Policy is to sustain the contribution of the national forest resources to the uplifting of the quality of life in the country by conserving the resources for the benefit of the nation.

Kafakoma says the other reason that contributes to deforestation is poverty. This is why some NGOs are encouraging people to venture into small-scale business.

The government admits that if deforestation continues the country is headed s towards becoming a desert.

Desertification, a process whereby land is made unproductive due to several factors t such as human activities, is slowly being experienced in the country, says Kenneth Nyasulu, Director of Forestry in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs.

Nyasulu says the problem of desertification is not that acute in Malawi but there are signs in some parts of the country such as Blantyre.

"Apart from human activities such as over-grazing, farming and poor irrigation, deserts are also caused by climatic factors such as prolonged drought," he says, adding that there is need to regenerate trees. He says government is working hard with the communities and other stake-holders 'to avoid the country turning into a desert.

"According to research we have discovered that some government institutions and some parastatals have contributed to the degradation more than the ordinary man in the sense that they are the ones building more houses without replanting trees," he says.

He says it is common knowledge that indigenous trees bring more soil fertility than exotic ones.

"Regeneration should be carried out by every stake-holder, including government departments and the privatesector", Nyasulu says.

During this year's World Day on Desertification which fell on June 17, government stressed the need to contral deforestation, emphasising on the sustainable use natural resources. It also called on every Malawian to join forces in protecting the environment.

The 1997 Forestry Act empowers NGOs, the private sector and the communities as key stake-holders in the management of the forests. The Act also imposes stiffer penalties to deter people from engaging in illegal forestry activities such as charcoal burning and wanton cutting down of trees.

The problem of deforestation has been compounded by over population, as is the case in Thyolo. Demography and Social Statistics Division estimates that Thyolo alone will by the turn of the century have over 600,000 people, one of the highest in Malawi.

The division also estimates hat the country's population would be at 12 million. The fertility rate in. Malawi is at 6.7, considered the highest in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Agricultural expansion has been described as the major cause of deforestation in Malawi This is why natural resources should be used sustainably without turning the country into a desert, which will have devastating socioeconomic effects on the lives of people.

(appeared in "The Nation", 20 December 1999)