Our forest conservation teams love their work as they know that by supporting and encouraging each forest conservation committee to protect their area of trees, that it has a positive impact on the whole community.
Trees help to regulate rainfall and prevent soil erosion and with the majority of Malawians living in rural areas being subsistence farmers, rainfall is vital to ensure their crops grow and they have food to eat and to sell.
Owen is one of our Forest Conservation Coordinators and he recently took us on a walk with the Munkhonkwe Forest Conservation Committee.
We trekked through the forest to the highest peak to see how they are protecting the trees. The committee Chairman Anderson Nkhata said, “We meet once a week to patrol the forest and we are proud that we rarely have problems. If we catch anyone illegally chopping down trees then they are fined and taken to the Chief. We also confiscate the tools they were using.”
