World Bank Country Manager for Malawi, Hugh Riddell says Malawi is at the verge of disaster if its citizens will not be empowered to stop cutting down trees carelessly for a living.

Riddell sounded this recently in Lilongwe at a Landscape Restoration Forum which was held under the theme “Scaling-Up Financing for Forest Landscape Restoration in Malawi”.

“80% of land in Malawi is in degraded which means less productivity for farmers, less access to water, so we are really destroying the future of Malawi if we follow on on this.”

Ridell cited that Malawi can deal with the problem at hand if its citizens have been provided with other income generating activities, as currently they are forced to destroy the environment due to poverty.

“I agree that the majority of people hardest by degradation are in rural areas but let’s be honest if you look to the access to water in Lilongwe, the destruction of Dzalanyama forest and other catchment areas, that impact cities a lot and on top of that cities rely on charcoal, illegal charcoal burning, for cooking. So, it’s not a problem of rural areas only.”

He suggests the need for empowering the citizenry with small scale alternatives that would help them find their daily bread so that they stop cutting down trees.

“We need to give them other income opportunities, to be more efficient how they plant their maize or other sources of legume vegetables or small-scale animal farming.”

“We all saw the destruction of cyclone Freddy and one reason is that there was no forest on the hilltop, there was flooding destroying people’s lives. We see rainy season coming, there’s 4.4 million people going hungry if we don’t find food and one reason is low productivity. We see actually the results of degradation we are doing; we have to help people to get jobs.”

The World Bank Country Manager for Malawi has committed to continue supporting the country in forest restoration interventions.

Malawi has set a target of restoring about 4.5 million trees by the year 2030.

by Lester Mhone

Stakeholders working in the environmental sector have stressed the need for empowering the local communities economically as one way of dealing with environmental degradation in the country.

This has been sounded at a Landscape Restoration Forum on Thursday in Lilongwe held under the theme “Scaling up Financing for Forest Landscape Restoration in Malawi,” where different stakeholders in the sector bowled down their heads on what Malawi can do to make strides in restoring the natural resources.

World Bank Country Manager for Malawi, Hugh Riddell cited that World Bank is understanding challenges the country is facing due to environmental depletion hence its commitment in supporting the government of Malawi with various interventions to deal with climate challenges.

He singled out that for the fight to be won, there is a need for empowering the marginalized citizenry with social protection, increased generation of energy and improved overall health of the economy among others.

In a separate interview, one of the environmentalists in the country, Maloto Chinkombero says empowering the local communities with different initiatives especially those surrounding protected areas such as National Parks and Game Reserves is one of the interventions that government and other stakeholders should champion to win the battle of conserving the environment.

Chinkombero is in conversant with the sentiments that poverty is among the fueling factors forcing the local communities to venture in destroying the environment.

He added by urging government to come up with policies that should be used in facilitating the interventions to be lined up in empowering the local communities economically.

Meanwhile, principal secretary in the ministry of natural resources and climate change, Dr Yusuf Mkungula has disclosed that Malawi intends to restore about 4.5 million trees by the year 2030.

Deputy Head of Development Cooperation at German Embassy Lilongwe, Knut Gummert has advised different stakeholders to work hand in hand in addressing forest landscape restoration initiatives.

By Lester Mhone

The Episcopal Conference of Malawi ECM has called upon all Catholic Priests in the country to read and meditate on the word of God during this year’s Bible Month.

The Secretary General For ECM, Very Rev. Fr. Valerian Mtseka, through a press statement, says the habit will help in deepening love, appreciation and witness to God and his Word.

The statement says that this year’s Bible Month will be connected with the Golden Jubilee of Small Christian Communities in the AMECEA region, thereby attributing a theme “The Word of God and the Eucharist at the Heart of the Small Christian Community.”

Fr. Mtseka has requested parish priests and all pastoral ministers to help the laity in appreciating the importance of the Bible in their vicinities.

In addition to that, Fr. Mtseka has asked all Dioceses to support the activities of the Bible Apostolate through a Special Collection on a Bible Sunday, 3rd September 2023.

The Episcopal Conference of Malawi declared September to be observed every year as Bible Month in Malawi.

In this Bible Month, Radio Alinafe dedicates every day from 12 noon to 13:00 as a Word of God hour, commonly known as NKHOMALIRO YA MAU A MULUNGU.

The Malawi Government has committed to protect children from all forms of child labour including hazardous work through reviewing of the prohibition of hazardous work for children order of 2012.

Speaking as he was commissioning a two-day stakeholder review meeting on Thursday in Salima, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Mr. Wezi Kaira said that current order has helped the country in fighting child labour.

Kaira said that the review has come at a right time when Malawi is a pathfinder country in the fight against child labour and therefore all players must move fast in addressing child labour issues.

The International Labour Organisation has since advised that the country must quickly move out from developing good policies and laws without action.

Technical Officer at the Malawi ILO, Mr. Gracious Ndalama said that it is his belief that the country will benefit from the outcome of this review meeting.

The prohibition of hazardous work for children order of 2012 became part of the Employment Act chapter 55 section 2.

by Sam Kalimba,
Salima.

As one way of creating opportunities to budding media professionals, Radio Alinafe is conducting a 3-month long internship program which will help these individuals to familiarize with media production.

The director of Radio Alinafe, Fr. Louis Chikanya has told the new interns that they should expect to get to know more about the radio in as far as radio production is concerned.

Radio Alinafe gives room for individuals to have full knowledge and experience which they long for.

The radio is capable of training individuals in news anchoring, continuity presentation and editing programs using relevant software among others.

In addition to radio broadcast, the interns are also expected to know how to use camera thereby becoming more knowledgeable about videography and photography, and also but not limited to know more about software used when editing footages which includes Adobe Lightroom/Premier Pro.