Project Launch: 12-27-18

Machapa is located in Dedza East, a low lying area along the shores of Lake Malawi in Central Malawi. Due to climate change, it is very difficult for locals to have access to forestry resources such as firewood and timber. Due to soil degradation in the area, agricultural productivity has been affected such that farmers are producing low yields. 

Machapa has groups that are working on a reforestation project that is aimed at raising over 480,000 seedlings that are to be distributed around the community and sold to areas outside the community for income generation and ecological sustainability. The groups intend to plant different species of trees including fruit trees and nitrogen fixers. The project will ease the burden of acquiring wood especially for women and children who walk long distances of not less than 5 kilometers in search of resources. The project will help reduce the distance the locals travel, provide food, combat climate change and provide economic opportunity for the project participants. 

Project Update:

The Machapa Reforestation Project has procured and planted 16,453 trees, from which 3,834 are fruit trees and 12,619 are non-fruit trees. All of the fruit trees have been planted around households since they require constant care. In addition, 5,117 non-fruit trees have been planted by households while 7,502 trees have been planted by five committees in woodlots. A total of 298 households have managed to plant an average of 30 trees around their homes. The trees have so far demonstrated a survival rate of 82% for non-fruit trees and 79% for fruit trees, which will be monitored as more trees are planted. Apart from providing fuel energy, the trees will help mitigate impacts of climate change hugely impacting the area. 

Final Report: 3-18-19

Led by CorpsAfrica Volunteer James Matitwiri, Health and Environment Animators of Senior Chief Kachindamoto in Dedza District used the $2,960 World Connect grant to  establish three tree nurseries  where people of the area learned how to take care of the trees and collected seedlings for planting.  At the end of the project implementation period, a total of 198, 879 trees have been planted with 143,193 surviving representing 72% survival rate.  As a group, the animators planted 65,000 trees while individual members of the community planted 133,879  trees of different types including fruits which will also generate income once they start producing.The nurseries have been maintained with plans to continue planting trees every year. In 2020, a total of 123,000 have been earmarked for planting. As a highly deforested area, the trees have already reduced the rate of degradation and erosion while in the future, they are expected to be a huge source of fuel energy leaving the women who currently travel long distances to source firewood.