Climatelinks Photo Gallery

Dzaleka Refugee camp, Dowa District, August 2020. Musago Mirida is a mother of 3 and a refugee from Burundi in Malawi. She was born a refugee in Tanzania in the 1970s. In 2012, she went back to Burundi and stayed there for two years. In Burundi, she lived along the lake Tanganyika. Her husband was a fisherman and she was cultivating rice, sweet potatoes, plantain. When they came back to Burundi, neighbors were not happy since they were competing for natural resources (water and land) which have become more scarce with the impact of climate change. This evolved into an open conflict and because of violence, she had to leave Burundi to Malawi in 2014. Now, she depends on the food assistance and she works in people’s fields to have some money to buy clothes for her children. Thanks to USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) support, Musago and 45,000 refugees living in Malawi are receiving cash assistance which enable them to buy food in the local market (such as rice in the picture).

Balaka District, Malawi, August 2020 - Idrissa Dyless has been involved in a climate action integrated program since 2017 and has learned many improved techniques of farming but also alternative livelihoods. In the context of climate change, it is crucial to encourage income generating activities apart from farming (which is mostly reliant on rains in Malawi). From 2017 to 2020, he has started protecting woodlots and neighboring forests. With the new trees planted and the natural regeneration, it became favorable to start the honey making process since the trees were providing enough shade for beehives. Idrossa learned apiculture and in his first harvest in August 2020, he got 22kg of honey which he managed to sell. USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is supporting Malawi (through WFP) to change lives of rural communities through a range of various climate change mitigation interventions. These include productive asset creation for smallholder farmers to be better equipped against climate change.

Tapumuluka Irrigation scheme, Nsanje District, Malawi, November 2020. Anne Moyo, a smallholder farmer, was affected by floods in 2015 and 2019 and drought in 2016 and 2018, resulting in her crop being destroyed four times in the last six years. She was really desperate at the time, skipping meals and having her grandchildren drop out of school to help the family. Initially, Anne was receiving food or cash from WFP to be able to feed her family. As she was getting back on her feet, Anne and her neighbors started working to plant trees, grow veggie gardens with organic compost, dig wells, and anything that can benefit her and her community, and help equip them to better resist climate change. In March 2021, Anne was producing enough (and diverse) food thanks to a solar-powered irrigation scheme. She engaged in other money-making businesses and was able to rebuild her house (destroyed from previous floods) and keep her children in secondary school. USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is supporting Anne and 85,000 other families in Malawi (through WFP) through a range of various climate change mitigation interventions.

USAID/Malawi supports sustainable forest management and forestry friendly enterprises. This picture shows Pyxus Agriculture Limited concession within the Viphya Plantation, captured during a field visit with the USAID/Malawi SEG Office Director. The main product harvested from the plantation is firewood, which is supplied to tobacco farmers contracted by Alliance One Tobacco Malawi Limited. The firewood is used for curing tobacco. Post-harvest, some residual woods (lops and tops) do not meet the criteria for tobacco farmers’ firewood requirements due to smallness in diameter (below 6cm) or lengths (below 1m). The residual wood is used to produce legal, licensed and sustainable charcoal. The charcoal provides an alternative to the illegal charcoal in order to reduce deforestation through the illegal cutting of trees.

Kalanje Village, Mangochi District, March 2021, Malawi. The vertical garden method combines permaculture and bio-intensive agriculture to create a highly productive home garden using a small amount of land and 50% less water (only the top under the cover has to be watered, then the water trickles down). It utilizes sustainable agriculture practices and local materials making it used in increasingly dry environments due to climate change. USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is supporting Malawi (through WFP) to change lives of rural communities through a range of various climate change mitigation interventions. These includes productive asset creation for smallholder farmers to be better equipped against climate change.

Namilongo School, Zomba District, Malawi, April 2021 - Matilda Chikondo and Standard 8 students. WFP is working with smallholder farmers to improve crop yield and protect their environment from the effects of climate change. These communities also partner with surrounding schools, re-greening the area and setting up veggie gardens. Matilda Chikondo believes it is important to support the school as a community member. She has two children in this school and together with the neighbours, they have planted over 4,000 trees. This protects the school from natural disasters which have become more intense and frequent because of climate change. The veggie gardens are used to teach children about climate-smart agriculture and money from the sales are used to help kids in need to buy school supplies and uniforms. USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is supporting Matilda and 85,000 other families (through WFP) to change lives of rural communities through of a range of various climate change mitigation intervention.

USAID has partnered with the Government of Malawi, first to assess landscape restoration opportunities, then to develop a cross-sectoral strategy to achieve landscape restoration. Now, through the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests Project co-funded by USAID and FCDO, the Government of Malawi is implementing landscape restoration and monitoring progress towards Malawi’s ambitious commitment to the Bonn Challenge and AFR100 to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

This picture shows a plantation in the Viphya Forest Reserve, established by Consolidated Processing Industries, with funding from USAID. The trees seen are 2.5 years old and are thriving.  These trees, together with the larger Viphya Forest Reserve, provide employment for Malawians and essential water for residents of Mzuzu City and surrounding areas.  The Forest Reserve itself is also source of rivers that flow into Lake Malawi which helps to sustain fisheries and livelihoods along the Lake. 

In Malawi, healthy forests provide critical products and services for rural communities. Makwezu Village Forest Area Committee in Nkhata Bay district, Northern Malawi, has integrated fish farming in their community forest management drive. The committee has established a fishpond to provide an alternative source of livelihood, tied to forest conservation. The Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests Project, co-funded by USAID and FCDO is supporting the Government of Malawi to sustainably manage its forest resources through nature-based initiatives including fish farming, beekeeping and others.

USAID/Malawi supports sustainable forest management in Malawi. This picture shows a forest ranger measuring tree diameter in Namizimu Forest Reserve near a customary land in Mangochi district in Malawi’s Southern Region, during the 2021 National Forestry Inventory (NFI) exercise. The NFI enables the Government of Malawi to take stock of its forest resource status and quantify Malawi’s contributions towards climate change abatement through land-based interventions. Photo credit: Michael Chirwa, Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF), July 2021.

Members of the Malawi National Forest Inventory team taking plot measurements inside Dzalanyama Forest Reserve situated in Malawi’s Central Region. USAID supports the Government of Malawi to collect and analyze forest data. This helps Malawi to take stock of forests, including forest cover. The degraded land is restored through natural forest regeneration.  In these efforts, USAID is supporting Malawi to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land. The initiative aims to prevent the damage caused by human activities in the forest reserves.

USAID works to increase the supply and marketing of sustainable charcoal, to offset demand for illegal and unsustainably produced charcoal from Malawi's indigenous forests.  This picture shows kilns for production of legal, licensed, and sustainably produced charcoal.  The charcoal provides Malawian communities living in urban centers of charcoal demand with an alternative source of cooking/heating energy.

In Malawi, illegal cutting of trees for charcoal and timber production is the main driver of deforestation in the remaining natural forest reserves. In this picture, a member of the Village Natural Resources Management Committee monitors illegal activities in Kaning’ina Forest Reserve located in Nkhata Bay district, Northern Malawi. The monitoring exercise is part of an initiative to identify hotspots where illegal cutting of trees is occurring and work towards restoring deforested areas through natural regeneration. The Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests, co-funded by USAID and FCDO, supports the Government of Malawi to restore forests. Malawi targets to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance is working with the World Food Programme to change the lives of rural communities in Malawi through a range of environment and development interventions. Since 2017, farmers in the Usi village, Machinga District, have planted more than 1,800 trees. These plantings, along with the adoption of natural regeneration practices, have contributed to an 80 percent increase in biomass and forest cover in the catchment area. Meanwhile, farmer adoption of water harvesting measures and production practices raised the groundwater table by 35 cm and increased crop yields by 60 percent from an average of 500 to 800 kilograms. USAID’s sustainable landscapes programs in Malawi have supported community land management plans and the Government of Malawi’s Nationally Determined Contribution and its Forest and Landscape Restoration Strategy.

USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA - ex FFP) is supporting Malawi (through WFP) to change lives of rural communities through of a range of various interventions. These includes restoring degraded lands for smallholder farmers and afforestation to prevent soil erosion. Since the beginning of WFP’resilience programme in Malawi over 31,000 hectares of land have been rehabilitated

Picture taken in Zomba District, December 2018

USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA - ex FFP) is supporting Malawi through WFP carrying out activities in seven districts, supporting 84,000 households. Participants build assets to improve their livelihoods, creating healthier natural environments, reducing risks and impacts of shocks, increasing food productivity, and strengthening resilience to natural disasters. Thanks to the asset creating activities, some communities, typically affected by climate-related shocks, reported low to no impact from the Cyclone Idai floods. In 2019 alone, over 3 million trees were planted along river banks, woodlots, household dwellings and community structures.

Akwalu Lupata, 54, married with 4 children suffered gastric ulcers for 10 years.

“For 10 years I could not eat any solid food. I was living on fluids only. But since I started growing moringa trees which also has medicinal/healing properties, I’ve been taking the moringa powder, and the ulcers have cleared off. I can now eat normally without any pains Now that I’m healed, I work hard on my crop field.”

USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA - ex FFP) is supporting Malawi (through WFP) to change lives of rural communities through of a range of various interventions. These includes productive asset creation for smallholder farmers and afforestation. Amongst other trees that are planted by participants, moringa trees are promoted for its wide range of benefits.