Malawi is Planting its Future

The problems keep coming, and each new one delays us in getting to the office of the Minister of Forestry for the nation of Malawi. I hate being late to any meeting, but to be late to a meeting with a government official is doubly uncomfortable. Finally we get the problems resolved and head toward the office of the Forestry Department. Upon our arrival we are immediately ushered into the office of the Minister of Forestry, along with his Deputy Secretary of Forestry. Beside them are seated the assistant Director of Forestry, and the District Forestry Officer for the Lilongwe District Office. We take our seats. No one seems to notice, or even care, that we are late arriving. The customary greetings, introductions, and conversation continue for nearly an hour. It is all part of the Malawi custom of getting to know you, and what you are all about, before getting down to the business at hand. Malawians are masters at determining character, and they will size you up in short order. After the time of greeting we all get into a Nissan Patrol 3.0 Di and head out of the driveway.

The sun is climbing high in the sky, and the customary fog on distant mountains is burning its way toward a clear blue sky. The green landscape from the recently ended rainy season still punctuates the landscape as we scoot hastily south through the countryside. Family plots of ripe maize spot the landscape brown, and white clouds drift slowly across the African sky. Cassia Spectabilis trees topped with beautiful blossoms of yellow warn of the coming dry season.

Tearing Long Gashes In The Clouds

Within fifteen minutes the changing landscape begins to roll the road into a slow rollercoaster of curves and hills, and the distant mountains move in to surround us. The farther south we travel, the higher the peaks. They appear as though they are tearing long gashes in the soft underbellies of the low flying clouds. Brown grass huts extend above the tall grass of the savannah. Ox carts filled with young boys, and commerce, move north along the road, while the older boys quickly pass them on bicycles burdened with racks of wood. Women whose backs are bent from age and labor cautiously step off the edge of the broken tarmac in order to avoid the rush of oncoming vehicles. They trudge their way toward a nearby trading center with baskets of vegetables on their heads and babies on their backs. Coke and Panadol signs mark the sides of stores, along with such interesting signs as the Double Vision Boys School, or the No Farming - No Life Grocery Store. Or what woman would not want to go to the Beautiful Woman Salon.

Hills once covered with plush forests now stand naked and ashamed. Peaks stare down in disbelief as village scavengers seek the last stand of trees for enough wood to cook the next meal. One must sympathize with the village woman who has no other means to create a fire with which to feed hungry children. Yet it is this pitiful lot that is robbing the future of the future forests.

A Fat Man Lying On His Back

Fifteen more minutes and the vehicle glides into a valley, across a stream, and over the unmarked boundary between the Lilongwe District, and the Dedza District. Before us in the distance looms Dedza Mountain. It looks like a fat man lying on his back. It seems to grow as we approach it at 70 kilometers an hour. Just when it appears we are going to skirt the mountain on the west side the 4 x 4 slows, and then we turn left toward the mountain, and into Dedza Boma. The route, long since forgotten by the highway department, draws us down an impossible dirt path to the backside of the mountain. More and bigger potholes, and finally we break into the open. The view is breathtaking as we look out over a breathtaking vista. Wild flowers flow down the mountainside, and people with ancient hoes dot the hillside in intense labor. Men with bare feet, hardened and blistered by the rough soil, toil in the mid-day sun to create little clearings around each tiny, fragile seedling. Everywhere there are stump reminders of ancient forests. Passing these workers we round a sharp curve and enter the Dedza Mountain Project. The area of work on the southwest side covers 40 hectors, or about 88 acres. An estimated 20,000 seedlings have already been planted. They are now being carefully weeded. Some of the villagers are observed leaving the staging area with big grins, and boxes of shoes they have received as a reward from the “Shoes For Trees” program. We wave. They wave back.

Appearing To Mock The Naked Valley

Next we stop at the Forestry Office so we can talk with some of the workers. Everyone knows of the Shoe Incentive Program, and everyone agrees it is what is making the tree-planting program so successful this year. After hearing and seeing the results of the incentive program from these men, we get back in the vehicle and head around the mountain to the northwest side. Again we find a road that promises no care has found it in several years. It is an impossible dirt path, and it seems to have been a target range for B-52 carpet-bombing. One has to wonder how so many potholes can cluster together, all in one place, and all at the same time. We pass a giant pine forest of 3,500 hectors that was planted in 2002. The trees reach skyward, as they appear to mock the naked valley nearby. The Nissan crawls around the now famous mountain of ancient rock paintings. We are told the paintings on this mountain were painted hundreds of years ago by the African Bushmen, or pigmies. We can’t see them high in the caves on the mountain as we pass, but that does not take away our marvel at this ancient land of surprises.

Arriving on the west side of the mountain we enter the Chongoni forest where some 20,000 seedlings have been planted. As with the northwest side, in the Dedza Mountain Project, we are advised the success of the project can again be credited to the “Shoes For Trees” Project instituted by the Malawi Forestry Department, and the Malawi Project Incentive Program Initiatives. Across the hillside workers can be seen with sickles swinging away at the weed-covered earth, and ancient hoes claw out needed firebreaks.

Road Less Traveled

Our vehicle pulls to a stop, and the Forest Department workers walk up to greet us. Our Malawi guide encourages, and admonishes them to continue their good work in order to receive new pairs of shoes from the next shipment. The workers seem happy to know such a reward is coming their way. Smiles reflect their response. It looks like we have reached a remote place at the end of the road, certainly a road less traveled. Yet, in reality, we are in the very center of the action. One hundred and fifty pairs of shoes for every 20,000 seedlings planted and weeded. There is no other payment, no other incentive, only the pair of shoes to help to reforest their land.

At this work site we stop to talk with one of the forest managers. He is a forest service employee with seven years of experience with the department. He is from Lilongwe, and he tells us he wants to attend the Bunda College of Agriculture in order to obtain a degree in Forestry. He cannot go until he finds a sponsor to help him with the cost.

“Will clothes work as well as the shoes have worked, if we give you clothes for trees next year,” our guide asks? The worker responds, “Yes, we want to plant 500,000 seedlings next year. We simply need incentives to get the village people to come out and help us. Of course we also need panga knives, pruning shears, and some fire fighting equipment. If we have these things we can grow our forests back again.”

For The Sake Of All Of Us

As the afternoon begins to leave us behind we make our way back to the tarmac of M-1, and turn north toward Lilongwe and home. The driver pops in a cassette tape and out come the strains of Dolly Parton, as well as an assortment of other country and western singers, compliments of Nashville, Tennessee. Two Malawi Forest Service Officials, in the back of our vehicle, can be heard softly clapping to the beat. It is obvious there is really not much difference between peoples, no matter where you are in the world. And another thing is sure. These people have to be successful in what they are doing. The forests of Malawi must be reestablished … for the sake of all of us.

Note: The Shoes For Trees Program, from the first 40-foot trailer of shoes, was reported to have netted a total of over 400,000 seedlings planted and weeded. A second trailer of shoes has resulted in thousands of more trees planted on the land of the new Dzidalire Community Development Agency, and the site of the new Malawi International Bible Institute north of the Dedza Trading Center.