Malawi traditional leaders step up to help fight forest fires

Karen Sanje in AlertNet: Malawi’s traditional leaders have been enlisted to help prevent forest fires that are threatening livelihoods, producing climate-changing emissions and damaging the environment in this southeast African nation.

“As community leaders we should take a leading role in preventing and putting out fires,” said Paramount Chief M’mbelwa of Mzimba during a meeting on fire prevention in the government-owned Viphya plantation.

Those efforts may include things like improving labour relations to curb arson fires by disgruntled plantation employees, and limiting the sale of beer within plantations, as drinking is linked to fires from dropped cigarettes, and limiting the use of muzzleloader guns, also believed to be setting off fires.

In 2010, fires damaged nearly 9,000 hectares (22,000 acres) of trees in the plantation, whose 54,000 hectares (132,000 acres) make it one of Africa’s largest manmade forests.

In recent years, warmer temperatures in the region, likely related to climate change, have worsened the risk of fires and the extent of outbreaks. Mzuzu, the city closest to the Viphya plantation, used to be known for its year-round cool temperatures, but the mercury there now soars as high as 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer....

The road to Mzuzu in Malawi. This is the Chikangawa man-made forest. Shot by Malawiana, Wikimedia Commons, public domain