Preserving trees: the case of Mozambican refugees in Malawi

Abstract

Malawi is a landlocked country that is bordered by Mozambique in the south and east, Zambia in the west and Tanzania in the north. The total land area is 119,140 square kilometres, 20% is covered by water and approximately five million hectares is covered by indigenous forests and woodland. Of this 20% consists of national parks and game reserves and 20% forest reserves and protected hill tops and 60% of natural woodland on customary land, 80,000 hectares is under exotic plantation management. Between 1986 and 1994 Malawi hosted over a million Mozambican refugees who fled their country following the protracted armed struggle between FRELIMO soldiers and REMAMO bandits. The large influx had negative effects on the socio-economic spheres of the society as well as the natural resources: such as water, land, trees and forests. This paper will assess how gender sensitive the measures taken by different organizations were and the impact that this had on the afforestation project.