EDITOR'S NOTE, 1/15/2019: Since this blog post was published, the Malawi government has revised the Malawi Youth Forest Restoration Program. Now, $2 million will support youth in restoring more than 50,000
EDITOR'S NOTE, 1/15/2019: Since this blog post was published, the Malawi government has revised the Malawi Youth Forest Restoration Program. Now, $2 million will support youth in restoring more than 50,000 hectares of land, instead of $7 million to restore 125,000 hectares. This is still equivalent to 1.5 percent of the annual budget, and the government remains deeply committed to investing in natural resource management within the country. We have changed the text below to reflect the new budget numbers.
Nearly all – 96 percent – of Malawi’s rapidly growing population depends on wood or charcoal for cooking. Meanwhile, land is continuously being cleared to grow crops, since nearly 80 percent of Malawians rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. As in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, these two factors put pressure on forests, increasing climate-warming emissions, disrupting watersheds and reducing biodiversity.
Malawi’s government is determined to combat this potentially disastrous trend by investing in long-term solutions for natural resource management, and has recently announced a USD $2 million (1.43 billion Malawian kwacha) program for forest restoration. For an emerging economy like Malawi, this is a huge investment equivalent to about 1.5 percent of the government’s annual spending.
Malawi’s Youth Take Center Stage
Malawi’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining will use this substantial funding to implement the Malawi Youth Forest Restoration Program, recognizing that a sustainable future lies in the hands of the country’s youth, who need a bold demonstration of the value of forests. Under the new initiative, the Department of Forestry will work with the Mini