Page 18 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

10 The Society of Malawi Journal

plantations. The International Traditional Mediciners (herbalists) of Malawi
(to which I once belonged), under Grant Chipangla, urged the need for the
government to conserve tracts of Brachystegia woodland - rather than plant
pines and blue gums - and was also instrumental in establishing local
botanic gardens as a source of local medicines (I. Banda 2002). Many local
organizations in the Shire Highlands, such as the Wildlife and Environment
Society of Malawi (WESM) also established free nurseries - mainly of
indigenous trees - and promoted local tree planting schemes. Throughout
the Shire highlands peasant smallholders, in response to the deforestation of
the landscape, have been increasingly planting household trees over the last
two decades for timber, poles and fruit.
I turn now to the second issue articulated in the local newspapers
and in government reports, namely that of "food security".
In recent decades foresters, in particular, have been emphasizing the
"linkage" between the National Forest Programme (1996), which advocated
community participation in the conservation and management of forest
reserves, and "poverty reduction strategies" (McConnell et al 2007). One
study, for example, describes the Brachystegia woodlands as "Malawi's
green gold" and advocates the promotion of forest-based enterprises - such
as wood carving and furniture making - as a way of reducing poverty
(Kambewa and Utila 2008).
Two points may be made with regard to this study. One is that it seems
rather odd to be advocating community participation in the management of
forest reserves and the development of forest-based industries when these very
woodlands are fast disappearing. Secondly, peasant smallholders in the Shire
Highlands have long engaged in forest-based enterprises in order to acquire off-
farm income. Women have long been gathering edible insects and fungi from
the woodland, so do they really need outside consultants to tell them that this
may be a good way of alleviating "food insecurity''?
Food security among peasant smallholders of the Shire Highlands is not,
however, linked primarily to the availability of woodland resources, important
though this is, but has much wider ramifications.
Scholars, particularly agricultural economists, have emphasised that
life for rural people in Malawi is essentially one involving a "struggle for food
and survival". Studies have indicated that the majority of peasant smallholders
simply do not have enough to eat and consume only around 1400 calories (or
less) a day. This is well below that necessary for a normal, active and healthy
life-style. The average cash income per person per annum is estimated at around
50 US dollars, far less than a dollar a day, the World Bank's benchmark for
defining poverty. Even then, 60 per cent of this is spent on food. Most people in
Malawi, one study concluded, "live on the edge of survival" (Conroy et al
2006:3, cf Carr 2004: 183).