Deforestation, women and economy

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

People living far away from a forest would usually perceive deforestation as an exclusively environmental problem. However, for people whose livelihoods depend directly on them, forest loss is a tragedy.

Desertification or climate change have had very devastating effects on humanity across the world. Effects have been worse in developing countries where women have been made to pay the highest price because they are directly related to household food security and firewood.

Degradation of the resource base generally translates into decreases in production or income and thus in the availability of food. Declining soil fertility leads to lower crop yields while shortages of biomass may result in a transition to lower-nutrition foods that require less fuel for cooking. In addition, recurrent drought or natural calamities also directly result in loss of food security prospects.

Environmental experts Gareth Porter and Janet Welsh Brown say conversion of forests for subsistence and commercial agriculture accounts for 60 percent of worldwide deforestation.

An estimated 20 to 25 percent of annual deforestation is thought to be due to commercial logging. The remaining 15 to 20 percent is attributed to other activities such as cattle ranching, cash crop plantations, construction of dams, roads, and mines.

Statistics indicate that an estimated 90 percent of the entire continent's population uses fuelwood for cooking, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, firewood and brush supply approximately 52 percent of all energy sources.

Less firewood, more trouble for women, children

The status quo in most African societies demand that women and children bear responsibilities of gathering firewood and drawing water while men tend to other equally important duties back home or when they go playing games (e.g. bawo) and drinking.

With no shoes on their feet, women and children cover long distances to gather firewood or draw water. In worst situations, children are forced to desert classes to accompany their mothers to carry out such tasks.

Any damage to the environment, especially forests, means that there will be less firewood, rivers and streams will gather silt and dry up leading to a decline in food production. This, effectively, translates to long distances women and children have to cover in their search for firewood and water.

In a country where electricity is a luxury for most of its citizens, besides being unreliable, firewood or charcoal becomes the only reliable source of fuel. Government statistics reveal only 8 per cent of the population has regular has access to electricity in their homes.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find that even government officials, forestry officials, et al are scrambling for bags of charcoal along the roads as they drive from field visits elsewhere.

Economic loss to Malawi

Malawi loses 191 million dollars (147 million Euros) a year to environmental damage including soil erosion, deforestation and over-fishing, says a UN-backed study released September, 2010.

The damage further depletes carbon sink that could otherwise take up the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere thereby forming a layer that traps and returns heat back to the earth’s surface – in what is scientifically known as global warming.

Deforestation affects women much more than men, and the poorer they are the worse it is for them. Women have been traditionally involved in collecting water, fuel and other non-timber forest products, while the men tend to other issues sometimes of less importance, especially during off-rainy seasons when they go drinking or playing traditional games such as bawo.

With deforestation, women's work of fetching and carrying becomes more difficult, since they have to go farther and farther from their villages to reach the receding tree line.

Sibongile Chithenga, 35, of Mpeni Village, Sub Traditional Authority in Mwanza, covers not less 15 kilometres away from home to fetch fuelwood. Besides, environmental degradation and the resultant effects such as erratic rains and soil infertility have turned her life upside down.

 “We used to yield for ourselves, but the situation has completely changed overtime. Every year, we’re experiencing devastating droughts leading to low or no yield at all,” says Chithenga, a widow caring for five children.

“Food production has substantially declined that we can’t feed ourselves now. We rely on food handouts from well-wishers such as Cadecom [Catholic Development Commission of Malawi],” she explains. One obvious outcome of all this is that women have less time to take care of themselves. They toil tirelessly to meet the needs of their families.

Women, especially in rural areas, play a key role in on- and off-farm activities in the developing countries. With the growing male out-migration from marginal areas, the number of women headed households in these areas is increasing.

Women are responsible for the day-to-day survival of the family. Women are more vulnerable than men to the effects of environmental degradation.

Over the past two decades, environmental degradation, including land degradation has continued to worsen exacerbating further poverty and food insecurity.

Degradation of environmental resources are fundamental obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and 2015 targets set by the United Nations.

In a report entitled Reclaiming Rights and Resources released on the occasion of Earth Day this year, CARE presented personal accounts from across Africa on how environmental problems directly impact the lives of the rural poor and specifically the lives of women.

"The negative outcomes of the loss and/or degradation of natural resources often fall most heavily on women, adding to their responsibilities and multiple roles in families and communities," said Phil Franks, poverty and environment advisor with CARE, the poverty-fighting organization working in 66 countries including Malawi.

"However, in many situations, women also hold the key to solving these problems and can bring environmental concerns to the attention of society in a powerful way."

Income Generating Public Works Programme (IGPWP) Forestry Manager Rose Bell observes that women in the rural settings are the worst hit by climate change.

Speaking recently when she visited Nkaombe Women Forestry Club in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Bvumbwe in Thyolo, Bell said village afforestation programmes could play a significant role in fighting the effects of climate change and that people in the rural areas need to take a leading role since they are directly affected the effects.

“People in the rural areas are mostly the worst hit by climate change. In the past, women used to fetch firewood within the backyards, but this isn’t the case today. Women have to travel long distances to fetch firewood, which is time-consuming,” said Bell.

When he was launching the 2009—2010 national tree planting season on December 15, 2009 in Chiradzulu, President Bingu wa Mutharika concurred with Bell further stressing the need for Malawians to plant trees at every idle land.

Mutharika explained that the country is currently losing more of its forests mainly due to the energy needs coming in forms of firewood and charcoal.

“We need to plant not less than 65 million trees per year if we are to fight deforestation,” Mutharika urged.

NGOs efforts on climate change

Lake Chilwa Basin (LCB) Climate Change Adaptation Programme says it plans to facilitate and strengthen the capacity of local and district institutions dealing in environment and natural resources management as one of mechanisms for fighting climate change.

LCB is a five-year programme jointly implemented by Leadership for Environment and Development Southern & Eastern Africa (LEAD SEA) based at Chancellor College, WorldFish Centre (WFC) and Forestry Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM).

LCB Programme Manager, Welton Phalira, says with a NOK35 million (about K830 million) grant the organization has just received from a the Norwegian government, the programme will support partner institutions with resources to enhance their capacity to deliver essential services including training, agricultural production and diversification inputs and other income generating activities to the communities so as to enhance their resilience and adaptation to climate change.

“The overall goal of the programme is to secure the livelihood of 1.5 million people in the Lake Chilwa Basin and enhance resilience of their natural resource base. This will be achieved through development and implementation of basin-wide climate change adaptations in support of the Malawi National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) to enhance the capacity of communities to adopt sustainable livelihood and natural resource management practices,” Phalira explains.

The project aims to strengthen local and district institutions operating in Machinga, Phalombe and Zomba to better manage natural resources and build resilience to climate change; facilitate cross-basin and cross-sector natural resource management and planning for climate change throughout the basin; improve household and enterprise adaptive capacity in basin hotspots; and promote mitigation of the effects of climate change through improved forest management and governance.

Group Village Headwoman Chonde of Mulanje is eager to mobilize her subjects into taking a leading role in fighting deforestation by planting more trees. She, however, fears lack of resources would choke her dreams. Will someone offer to help?

END