Thriving charcoal business
* This is in pursuant to Section 21 of the Customs and Excise Act
By Duncan Mlanjira
Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has instructed its station managers and all staff, particularly officers at security road checkpoints, to confiscate charcoal and all illegal forestry related goods and surrender them to relevant authorities.
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A memorandum to all station managers from acting Commissioner of Customs & Excise Division, Fredrick Mpeusa, reiterates the government of Malawi, through the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, prohibits the production, sell and use of charcoal in accordance with the Forestry Amendment Act (2019).
The officers, particularly officers at Road Blocks, are instructed to act accordingly in pursuant to Section 21 of the Customs and Excise Act.
Of late, Malawi Police at road blocks, in conjunction with Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, have been confiscating charcoal that is visible from the piles seen on the roadside.
Nancy Tembo during her visit in Mangochi
Last month, Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources, Nancy Tembo disclosed that Government is planning to recruit 300 game rangers to help in reinforcing laws to protect the country’s forest reserves and wildlife from degradation due to wanton cutting down of trees for charcoal burning.
She said this in Mangochi when she toured Phirilongwe Forest Reserve in the area of Senior Chief Mponda to familiarize herself with environmental degradation caused by human activities taking place there.
She bemoaned the rate of degradation at the forest reserve and took cognizance that it is due to understaffing of game rangers to reinforce law around Phirilongwe.
Current state of Phirilongwe Forest Reserve
She thus pledged recruit more rangers to patrol the forest and that that the 300 targeted are just a start as every year the Ministry will be employing more.
“We are now taking the issue of environmental conservation and protection seriously,” Tembo had said, observing that the charcoal burning business was being influenced by “some bad apples that are colluding with the charcoal burners to circumvent the law”.
Tembo condemned the syndicate, saying government would ensure that the said cycle was broken and that culprits are brought to book.
Most people involved are arrested and taken to court. However, the illegal trade still flourishes because of lack of alternative energy resources as most people cannot afford electricity as well as its appliances such as cookers and/or gas stoves.
Partnership with Super Brains General Dealers
In December, Tembo partnered with Super Brains General Dealers as part of her Ministry’s charcoal substitution efforts by promoting alternative energies and technologies for cooking which Malawians can afford.
Super Brains General Dealers visited her office in Lilongwe to introduce their Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) product comprising of super mbaula and deep fryer.
Meanwhile, Malawian passionate private tree seedlings developer, Mapopa William Banda has enticed people who intend to open an orchard woodlot from which to harvest timber, firewood or produce their own charcoal.
Tree seedlings available
He says he has a wide range of fruit and forestry tree seedlings such as mangoes, oranges, lemons, guavas, tangerines, loquats, grapefruits (white and red), limes, custards apples, Mexican apples, tomato fruits, papayas (yellow and red), Williams banana suckers, peaches and more.
He also has in stock pine, bluegum, m’bawa, mtangatanga, katope, mngongomwa, mthethe, nsangu, mkunkhu, mtsidzi (African umbrella tree), cassia wamilimo.
He is based in Blantyre and can be contacted on whatsapp 0991686201 and voice calls, 0997473355/0888578964. He delivers within Blantyre for orders of 20 plus.
Recently, Mapopa said reafforestation efforts in Malawi are being thwarted due to poor care after planting trees because concentration is usually on planting seedlings that have only been nurtured in the nursery for just 3 to 6 months.
A sapling
He said Malawi will only succeed in the afforestation battle if people concentrate on planting tree saplings — those that are over a year old because they are quite developed as compared to seedlings.
“There should be deliberate forestry policies that ensure protection of trees planted, say monetary inducements to those keeping forests intact for a good part of some years.
“Malawians only tout tree planting exercises but once done they never go back to check on their efforts.
“We can bellow out that we have planted 5 million trees but after just one year, only 900,000 would have survived — that’s where we go all wrong in our noble efforts in reafforestation,” he had said.
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