Regardless of efforts to protect the forest reserves in Malawi, the intervention does not seem to be effective as the forest’s reserves continue to be depleted by charcoal burners and wood harvesters.
Kaning’ina Forest Reserve, which is located in the Nkhata-Bay District with an estimated terrain elevation above seal level of 1264 metres, is suffering a massive deforestation. The Forest is partly the reason Mzuzu is called the Green City of Malawi.
Regardless of the forest department managing a roadblock which is just 1.5 kilometres away from the forest, Malawi24 has established that a great magnitude of damage that encroachers are doing in the protected forest reserve has left the forest on the ground.
Senor Chief Kabunduli has since called on stakeholders in the fight against environmental degradation to work hand in hand. The traditional leader believes there is a need to sensitize people on the dangers of the deforestation. This, argues the chief, will lead to a change in people’s mindset.
Statistics show that in Malawi, about 300 thousand hectares of forest are cleared every year. This loss equates to about eight percent of the country’s entire forestland.
According to Forestry Global Watch, in 2010, Malawi had a 1.39mha of natural forest, extending over 12 per cent of its land area. In 2021, it lost 14.7kha of natural forest equivalent to 5.30Mt of carbon dioxide emissions.
One of the residents who stays near Kaning’ina forest, John Tafwapu Chirwa, has accused some forest officers of edging with the perpetrators. He has also suggested that the government should hand all Forest Reserves to the Malawi Defence Force or African Parks. He says this can be one way of protecting it. Others say there is a need for political will.
The Malawi Defence Force (MDF), at times, uses the forest for its ground-level training.
