Improving Community Sustainable Natural Resource Management of Mount Mulanje

  • Status of project

    Ongoing

  • Region

    Africa

  • Country

    Malawi

  • Topic

    Public Engagement
Improving Community Sustainable Natural Resource Management of Mount Mulanje, Malawi

Overview

The project will develop sustainable livelihoods options from native plants and fungi from Mount Mulanje Biosphere Reserve as alternatives to current practices that damage mountain ecosystems, reducing biodiversity, and livelihood opportunities. The project partners will work with businesses and local communities to access local, national, and international markets, including through certified sustainable products. Community co-operatives and a social enterprise will be established and supported to manage market opportunities, and degraded, co-managed land will be restored by replenishing over-exploited economic species.

 

Photo credit: Kate Chanthunya

Outputs relevant to Public Awareness

Output 3: At least 5 community co-operatives established (with at least 50 community members in each, 50% female) and trained to cultivate, harvest and process products from the 5 selected target species, and >75,000 households with raised awareness of the importance of sustainable management practices to biodiversity and people.

Indicator 3.5: The understanding of the importance of biodiversity to livelihoods, and ways and benefits of sustainable use increased at least 20% at EOP compared to the baseline survey carried out in Q1, year 2 in Mulanje and Phalombe.

Chief’s forum. Photo credit: Lester Nanjala

Public Engagement Activities

Public engagement is only a small part of the project, but so far we have been working on:

  • Developing public awareness actions using Behavior Centered Design (BCD) Approach to help formulate the actions with the highest impact and align with the project objectives, while using existing channels of communication and influence within the community.
  • Radio programmes and jingles aired on Mzati radio to inform the community about the forestry act, tree tenure rights, biodiversity of Mount Mulanje and the challenges of conservation efforts. Experts were invited and listeners could share their questions and comments.
  • Leadership training with Group Village Heads (GVH) to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to run community meetings in their villages about conservation issues linked to the natural reserve. Topics covered were
    • biodiversity loss;
    • sharing best practices and strategies used by successful village heads and chiefs to tackle the conservation issues linked to charcoal burning/ firewood;
    • share thoughts on the ethical and legal implications of bribery among their practice and the need to eliminate it and how GVH cab help us spread the message in their communities, including awareness about men coming into the communities to marry women to access charcoal.
  • Community meetings led by GVHs to discuss conservation issues mentioned above.
  • Developing a leaflet (hyperlink to Malawi 6) about the importance of Mount Mulanje.
  • Co-sponsoring the biggest sports event of the year at Mount Mulanje, the annual Porters’ race.

Partners

Supported by the UK governments’ Darwin Initiative, this project is implemented in partnership with WeForest, Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT), and The Wildlife and Enivironmental Society of Malawi (WESM).

This 3-year project started in April 2022 and is expected to run until March 2025.

Funded by the UK Government through Darwin Initiative