Featured Research Project (February - March 2003)

Charcoal, Chiefs and Chambo: Community-based Natural Resources Management in Malawi

Linda Manning, EMI Alumni Affiliate and Manager of the Natural Resources Policy and Consensus Building Area at Marasco Newton & Peter Trick, Director of Decision Resources Center at Marasco Newton

Malawi's Ecological Setting

Malawi is a long, narrow country in Southern Africa bordered on the west by Zambia, to the north by Tanzania and to the east and south by Mozambique. It is at the bottom of the Great Rift Valley and, as a result, has a dramatic landscape with lakes, plateaus and deep valleys. Its most notable geographic feature is Lake Malawi.

Compared to other southern African countries, Malawi's natural resource base has not been as intensely exploited as some other African countries. For example, Lake Malawi is home to more species of Tilapia than anywhere else on earth. Mount Mulanji has some of the most diverse species of butterflies in all of southern Africa, and Lake Chilwa is a RAMSAR site for waterfowl.

Community-based Natural Resources Management in Malawi

Existing simultaneously with these natural resources and beauty there is widespread poverty and famine, especially in the rural areas where 90% of the population lives as subsistence farmers or fishers. Facing economic deprivation, Malawian villagers have exploited natural resources in unsustainable ways. Forests are being destroyed so that tribespeople can make charcoal to sell to middle class urban dwellers. Some fishery resources are being harvested excessively (including the consumption of valuable tropical fish as food) and wildlife poaching continues, as well. Some chiefs are corrupt and are allowing environmentally injurious activities within their villages.

To try to quell overexploitation and plan for a more sustainable approach to both natural resources management and economic development, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been supporting, through grants and technical assistance, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) activities. These focus on sustainable harvesting techniques of fish and wildlife, promotion of eco-tourism, and income generating activities to take pressure of natural resources. Malawi, a new democracy (since 1994) has an impressive set of advanced natural resource management laws to designed to promote sustainable use. These laws embrace community-based natural resources. CBNRM promotes traditional and sustainable management practices and encourages community stewardship by allowing tenure and income to the villagers who protect and mange the land.

Over the past five years, the COMPASS project has funded a wide range of community activities throughout Malawi such as village beach patrols to enforce fishing regulations, a women's collective that manufactures fuel pellets from wastepaper and the production of juices from the Baobab tree. However, Malawi's natural resources still face many challenges.

Strengthening CBNRM Policy

USAID hired Linda Manning and Peter Trick of the Marasco Newton Group to analyze and report on the progress that Malawians had made in developing and implementing CBNRM policies and practices. Rather than gathering data and writing a typical "from the outside looking in report," they designed a process that achieved the goals of assessing progress while also building policy analysis and collaboration capacity in Malawian leaders. It was viewed that this type of an approach was particularly crucial in this context for three key reasons. Under colonial and then dictatorial rule (until 1994), skills in analysis and collaboration had not been highly sought after so had not been highly developed in either formal or informal educational settings. Second, in order to have the analysis to be as useful as possible, Malawians would have to see their data, opinions and perspectives within the report. Finally, building relationships among the non-profit, ministry, parliamentary, and academic sectors beyond this event was viewed as key for furthering CBNRM activities in the future.

With the help of the COMPASS Chief of Party, Andrew Watson, (from DAI) they convened a group of senior Malawians from government ministries, Parliament and NGOs in order to evaluate progress, identify strengths and weaknesses and try to achieve consensus on some of Malawai's most perplexing natural resource problems. This approach culminated in a highly participatory four-day workshop exposing participants to policy analysis training (a skill set largely undeveloped in authoritarian regimes) as well as collaborative decision-making processes and analysis of CBNRM laws, policies and progress. The workshop included short lectures, discussions and group brainstorming on the uses and utility of policy analysis; key institutional actors; influences on decision makers; and governmental policy development cycles (from design to program evaluation).

In the final two days of the workshop, participants were encouraged to apply the experiences and skills gained in order to address three critical CBNRM issues: charcoal production and deforestation, the role of traditional authorities in CBNRM and sustainable fisheries management. The proceedings, techniques, and analytical products were compiled into a report by Trick and Manning in order that participants would have a document they could use as reference for future advocacy and analytical needs.
It is the opinion of the conveners that events like this are a good method to introduce and formalize concepts of analysis and advocacy while at the same time providing real-time, relevant data for critical problems. It is hands on. It is relevant to participants. It builds relationships and skills while providing much needed data exchange and analysis. In addition to building local capacity, the workshop helped participants gain the confidence to engage in dialogues with donor countries in order to make projects more relevant to local situations. This type of approach seems particularly relevant in parts of the world where crisis such as food shortage, AIDS, and civil unrest prevent a longer-term, academic approach.

Project Background

This research is part of COMPASS: a development activity funded by USAID/Malawi and implemented by Development Alternatives Inc.

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