International Programs

Malawi Community Based Management of Chia Lagoon Watershed, Nkhotakota District

Project Description

Jordan map Chia Lagoon Watershed covers a total of 989 km 2, of which 611 km 2 forms the project area. It falls between latitudes 13 o0 and 13 o30’S, and longitudes 33 o50 and 42 o20’E, encompassing parts of Nkhotakota and Ntchisi districts in Central Malawi. The watershed is endowed with vast natural resources vital to the livelihoods of its 55,000 human inhabitants. Over the past 20 years, the watershed has experienced escalating rates of environmental degradation due mainly to deforestation, soil erosion, siltation in rivers and lakes, harmful bush fires, declining fish populations in the lakes, rivers and lagoons from over fishing, and poaching and encroachment in Dwambazi Forest and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserves.

This project is a joint response to a request from Nkhotakota District Assembly (NDA) to address the inter-related environmental problems that have strongly affected the livelihoods, wellbeing and health of the communities in the Chia Lagoon Watershed.

The aim of the project is to improve the livelihoods of rural communities within the Chia Lagoon Watershed through an integrated community-based approach that involves sustained economic use of the watershed’s natural resources of land, water, flora and fauna. This will be achieved through:

Decentralization: Assistance will be provided to the decentralization process at the district level through the provision of support services and resources in policy, technical and business/marketing skills, extension and training materials, environmental monitoring, and human development with a focus on organization, leadership, and communications.
Improved community-based natural resource management: Increased community empowerment through the transfer of knowledge, skills and resources to sustainably use and management forests, soils, water, fisheries, and wildlife.
Sustainable agricultural practices: Improved agronomic and land use practices will be promoted through crop rotations, intercropping, crop diversification, agroforestry, increased tree planting and soil conservation.
Enterprise development: The identification and development of enterprises that provide rural people with practical and profitable opportunities to produce agricultural and natural resource based products to demand driven markets. This will include the ability to add value through basic processing and packaging of products involving the organization of special interest groups/economic units for increased efficiency and competitiveness. It will leverage opportunities to become more vertically integrated into the market chain through linkages with other producer groups and private sector firms engaged in marketing and processing.
Monitoring ecosystem change: Increased capacity will be developed to monitor and assess the ecosystem dynamics of the Chia Lagoon watershed in relation to changes in land use practices.
Improved health: Services will be strengthened to reduce the incidence and debilitating effects of malaria, HIV/AIDS, respiratory ailments, schistosomiasis, trachoma, trypanosomiasis, dysentery and cholera through basic preventive and treatment measures.

Field Results Update from 2005 to 2006

In the view of the project and outside visitors to the Chia watershed, there is clear evidence of good progress toward empowering the district assembly and communities to improve livelihoods through actions that promote economic growth and natural resource management on a sustainable basis.

Activities undertaken are summarized under each result area in Table 1A.

Table 1A - Summary Results (PDF)