Unequal Distribution of land and Biodiversity loss in Malawi (A case of Thyolo and Mulanje Tea estates and the communities)

Mulanje Mountain and Tea Plantations below it (picture by Mphatso Kalemba)

Introduction

Natural resources are the basic source of income, food, shelter and medicine for most Malawians and yet these resources are rapidly declining. The National Biodiversity and Strategic and Action Plan of Malawi indicates that the rapid decline of natural resources is due to poverty, a growing human population, increasing urbanization and high energy demands as well as clearing of marginal land for cultivation(NBSAP 2006).

The Malawi Growth and Development Strategy of 2006-2011 is the country’s development strategy which recognizes conservation of environment and natural resources as one of the priorities within priorities (MGDS 2006-2010). However, despite being a priority within priorities, the Malawi Millennium Development Goals Report of 2010 indicates that there are significant challenges in protecting Malawi's precious resources, especially forestry resources, which are the highest degraded.

Government efforts have mainly concentrated on reducing poverty, which is said to be the main driver of deforestation by promoting sustainable agricultural practices that maximize available land. However, chronic land scarcity in Malawi and accompanying land degradation presents the government with a dilemma: How to accommodate the land needs of citizens while preserving the agro-export base of the economy (IRIN, 2006).

The colonial land ownership that happened in Malawi in the early 19^th century means that most of the fertile land is occupied by large settler communities who own estates that produce the cash crops on which Malawi’s struggling economy is dependent on. With a total land area of 118,484km2 for the 13 million population, only 21% is arable land and the tea, tobacco and sugar estates occupy most of the fertile land (IRIN, 2006). Land around the tea estates - situated mostly in the southern region of the country - faces the heaviest pressure as the result of the historical displacement of indigenous communities accompanying colonialism. (IRIN, 2006).

There is not much literature and policy that quantifies land distribution patterns and their affects on poverty reduction within Africa’s small-scale farming sector. Using household survey data from five countries - Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique and Zambia - it was noted that, in countries where 70-80% of the rural population derives the bulk of its income from agriculture, poverty reduction typically depends on agricultural productivity growth. In cases where land distribution is not equal and the wealthy have access to more land; poverty reduction is not possible since the initial distribution of assets affects the poverty-reducing effects of the growth (Jayne et al., 2002).

Land is one of the natural resources that remains unequally distributed in Malawi (Chirwa, 2008). Faced with this limited access to land, Malawi’s population - nearly 85% percent of who live in rural areas have no option but to unsustainably utilize forestry products and clear more forests to open new farmlands for their survival. Deforestation is more severe in forests on customary land in Malawi (ECA/SA/EGM Land, 2003).

Land problems in Malawi are mainly on land tenure, access, land use and land governance all of which have been reported to accelerate natural resources degradation (Gondwe 2002). Despite this being the case most policies and strategies on biodiversity conservation do not consider unequal land distribution as a driver to biodiversity loss which affects other drivers like poverty and unsustainable agriculture, as a result biodiversity loss continues to manifest at rampant speed.

Background of Land Tenure in Malawi

The history of land tenure issues in Malawi date back to the 9^th century, when the Chewa , followed by the  Sena, Lomwe , Ngoni and Yao groups entered Malawi and displaced the original settlers , the Akafula and Abatwa, who were driven out of Malawi to Namibia (Kandodo, 2001) . These new settlers initiated wars over territories and slave trade as most land was acquired by military conquest or occupation of abandoned land. The strongest occupied the best land without any documented agreements but on the basis of military power (Presidential commission of Inquiry on land, 1996).

Between 1891 and 1896 British colonial forces intervened to bring a stop to these ethnic wars and establish commercial enterprises and agricultural estates through grant of concessions (F. Kandodo 2001). “The aim of colonial land policy in Malawi was to appropriate all land to the British sovereign and to facilitate access by the settler community on the basis of private title. The policy also redefined native rights strictly as "occupation rights" in order to discourage the establishment of land rights equivalent to freehold or the concessions claimed by the settlers (Malawi Land Policy, 2002).

The result was loss of land ownership and control by the indigenous communities as the whole land of Malawi was now placed in the hands of the British sovereign. The power of traditional authorities was now replaced by British laws and legislations (Millingtone and Kaferawanthu 2005) and Land was categorized as public land, private land and customary land. This was the position indigenous communities found themselves in at independence in 1964 (F. Kandodo, 2001).

The thirty years that followed under the dictatorship of President Kamuzu Banda( Ruled Malawi from 1964 t0 1994) saw the passing of Land Act in 1965 but it did not change the situation as it continued classifying land as private land, public land and customary land (Malawi Land Policy, 2002).

After the introduction of the Land Act, the government embarked on a massive process of expanding large scale agriculture and estates through customary land alienation (F. Kandodo, 2001). This saw a lot of customary land being lost to private land. The increase in estates meant an increase in the natural vegetation that was been removed to give room to the cultivation of crops which were meant to grow tobacco, tea, sugarcane and cotton and hardly benefited the local Malawian. Most of these estates were controlled by the remaining British and the big political figures.

 After establishment of democratic government in 1994, a presidential inquiry on land reform which aimed at establishing new land policy that would be economic, efficient, socially equitable and environmental sustainable was instituted to redistribute land that was in the hands of estates to farmers (since most of the land with estates was being underused yet that with farmers was being overused and experience land and resource degradation). Even though these findings were used to develop a new land policy in 2002 which aims at ensuring tenure security and equitable access to land, efforts to develop enabling administration and good governance structures have not been fruitful. Land is still concentrated into the hands of a few individuals e.g. Camforzi and Barrow Tea estates, together occupy almost one third of Thyolo District total land area (F. Kandodo, 2001).

The case of Thyolo and Mulanje

Malawi was the first African country to grow tea on commercial scale and this began in Mulanje district in 1880’s. This has so far grown and commercial tea estates in Malawi, owned mostly by foreign countries account for 93% production with only 7% being done by smallholder farmers (Sanne Van Der Wall, 2006). The biggest company is the Eastern Produce Malawi which owns a total of 21 estates and it is a subsidiary of Camilla, a British public limited company, and sells most of its produce to major international companies like Unilever and Lyons Tetley. The tea is mainly exported to United Kingdom and South Africa, who like the tea for its color and brightness as a key factor in blending with leading tea brands (Sanne Van Der Wall, 2006). In 2007, exports reached 42 thousand tons valued at 49 million USD (ITC, 2007).

While the tea companies have been enjoying such glory and success, the communities that surround these areas have been struggling to make ends meet. The soci-economic conditions of communities around these areas, both who work at the plantations, small holders tea farmers and other farming communities is very pathetic. Work on the plantation is very intensive and takes communities away from other activities yet the daily wage is between US$ 0.70 and US$ 1.60 a day for plucking green leaves. All the smallholder farmers sell their tea to the private estates at a price fixed by the companies and hardly meet the current world prices. The price for their green leaf, currently equivalent to US$ 0.082 per kilo, is does not make any distinction for quality (Sanne Van Der Wall, 2006). The communities around the areas live in poverty and can hardly meet the daily basic needs.

Picture, showing Malawians working in a tea plantation (Picture by Mphatso Kalemba)

Land is a limitation for farmers living around these tea estates to meet their farm requirements and basic needs through subsistence and commercial agriculture. A Malawi Baseline Livelihood survey conducted in 2005 indicates that Thyolo and Mulanje districts indicated that the average land holding size in the district was < 1 acre (GOM, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, 2005).

The majority of fertile land is taken up by the major tea companies and just little by small holder farmers. People thus have reverted to clearing of marginal lands in order to cultivate other crops, or to sell the cut trees as firewood or charcoal. There is rampant biodiversity loss as the population is also increasing in these areas and has to squeeze on the remaining available land that remains under the local chiefs.

Evidence of Biodiversity loss in Thyolo and Mulanje

During 1999-2003, Thyolo forest reserve was completely destroyed for subsistence agriculture reducing the forest cover from >10 km2 (Dowsett-Lemaire and Dowsett 2006) to a single fragment of 0.27 km2 on private land (CNS and JB unpubl. data). Thyolo Mountain houses a rare bird species called Thyolo Alethe (Alethe Choloensis).

However, extensive deforestation also has occurred on this mountain as well as Mulanje mountain which represents the largest area of montane forest (Baylisset al. 2007) and has resulted in three of the region’s evergreen forest bird species being accorded IUCN threat status Endangered (Thyolo Alethe, Spotted Ground-Thrush Zootheraguttata and Yellow-throated Apalis Apalis flavigularis) andone Vulnerable (White-winged Apalis Apalis chriessa) (Birdlife International 2004).

Apart from the threatened bird species, Mulanje mountain which offers spectacular views across tea plantations to Mozambique, sheer drops down gullies laced with waterfalls; glades shaded by forest trees where purple crested loeries and sun squirrels scuttle along the branches; montane grasslands dotted with ground orchids and gladioli and alive with butterflies; houses forests of fragrant Mulanje cedar trees which are endemic to Malawi and are endangered.

The endangered Mulanje cedar Widdringtonia whytei, endemic to the Mount Mulanje massif in Malawi, has been on the decrease due to increased fire incidence and illegal logging. Valued for its fine timber, attractive fragrance, and pesticide-resistant sap, the tree has been regarded as highly desirable since its discovery in the late 19th century (Julian Bayliss et. al. 2007). A study conducted in 2007, on “saving the Islands in the sky…the plight of the Mulanje Cedar” identified an area of 845.3 ha of Mulanje cedar, which represents a loss of 616.7 ha over the previous 15 years. Of the recorded trees 32.27% (37,242 m³) were dead cedars, indicating that the rest were lost to illegal logging (Julian Bayliss et. al, 2007).

In all the two instances, the obvious causes of biodiversity loss were poverty and clearing of land for agriculture. However, Poverty is initiated by lack of fertile land for farming to meet daily food requirements and generate income. This lack of fertile lands by the communities’ results from the unequal distribution of land, where a lot of land and most of the fertile land in the two districts belongs the tea estates. This link shows how unequal distribution of land has led to biodiversity loss in the two districts and continues to be a major threat.

Recommendations

Due to the link between access to resources, such as land and poverty in an agrarian economy (Chirwa, 2008), the Malawi Government introduced a programme of land reforms (GOM, 2002). Two ways were highlighted as measures to address the problem of small land holdings among smallholder farmers in Malawi

1.    Ensuring security of tenure through tilting of customary land as customary estate.

It has been observed that security of tenure helps in developing the land market, which has implications on poverty reduction – such as facilitating access to financial or physical capital and rent or sales (World Bank, 2003).

2.    Distributing land to the landless

The Malawi Government has introduced a willing seller/willing buyer approach to land redistribution and a resettlement programme to the landless or near landless (GOM, 2002, World Bank, 2004).

 In 2004, the Government launched a pilot project, the Community-Based Rural Land Development Project (CBRLDP) in four districts among them Thyolo and Mulanje, where the average land holdings among smallholder farmers are smallest with the highest population density. The main objective of the CBRLDP is to increase the incomes of about 15,000 poor rural families by providing land to the landless (Chirwa, 2008).

Despite all these measures in place, the greatest challenge lies in the effective implementation of such policies and projects. To implement land reforms there is need for the country to have adequate resources to fund the activities. There is need to effectively coordinate with NGO’s and other development partners to assist the government in the implementation. Previous work has been dominated by government officials who are limited in human and financial resources and are mostly corrupt. We believe involvement of other stakeholders will not only speed up the process, but also ease the financial burden on the government.

One other limitation to implementation is low participation due to ignorance by the communities. There is need for civic education to empower communities to own the reformation programmes and participate effectively. Involvement of other stakeholders will definitely speed up the awareness of the policy.

The land reform provides a great opportunity for the poor and landless to access larger land parcels under the resettlement programme. This will have a positive impact on welfare and will lead to poverty reduction among the beneficiary households (Chirwa 2008) which will in turn reduce over-dependence on forestry resources and reduce biodiversity loss and degradation.

Perhaps Malawi can learn a great deal from countries like Taiwan and Vietnam who have had major land reforms before. In Taiwan, land reforms included the new tenure system that limited land rents, privatization of government farms and restrictions on absentee landlords (Chen, 1994) whilst in Vietnam  there was  transfer of rights from farming co-operatives to individual households (Do, 2008).

As long as inequality in land access and distribution continues in Malawi, especially in Thyolo and Mulanje Districts, Poverty will continue to be on the rise and will continue to put pressure on natural resources, leading to biodiversity loss in the process.