Naturally regenerated forest beckons bee-keeping initiative

Over the past ten years, Malawi as a nation has been experiencing various forms of natural forest depletion. A lot of the causes are human generated. These include tobacco processing, charcoal burning and unsustainable harvesting of forest products.

A case in point were the bare, Kafukwe Hills in Mhuju, Sub Traditional Authority Mwahenga in Rumphi, the hills and surrounding areas and siltation of the nearby Kafukwe stream.Realising this, the people in the surrounding communities decided to protect the brachystegia (Miyombo) and other indigenous trees in allowing them to regenerate.

“It is better to allow natural regeneration of the indigenous tree species that are already available because the soil we have here cannot support the growth of exotic trees,” says Kelvin Banda, Rumphi District Assistant Forestry Officer.The initiative was supported by MASAF 4 Public Works Programme in 2018 with the aim to conserve the natural trees already growing and regenerating around the Kafukwe hill.

Afforestation, both tree planting and natural forests regeneration is one of the interventions that MASAF IV projects promoted to avert the effects of deforestation.

The journey to regenerating Kafukwe Hill natural forest started with clearing the grass to avoid bush fires, tree pruning and bye laws against wanton cutting of the trees.

There are various indigenous tree species in the regenerating forest, the dominant ones being brachystegia (Miyombo) and chiyere.

The changing face of the landscape is a testimony of how if well conserved, the forest and fauna can flourish once more.