A study on livelihoods, governance and illegality: law enforcement, illegality and the forest dependent poor in Malawi

Forests play a vital role in supporting economic and agricultural growth in Malawi. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of current legislation and illegality in the forest sector and suggest practical ways by which the formulation, implementation and enforcement of new legislation might better serve the forest-dependent poor in Malawi.

The scope of the study involved undertaking new policy research on the impact on the forest-dependent poor by examining current forest governance structures and mechanisms and current legislation. The study also examined attempts, mechanisms and barriers to enforce legislation by all stakeholders.

In order to strengthen law enforcement and improve forest governance to ensure that the forestry sector contributes to poverty reduction, the paper recommends that:

• public awareness programmes be implemented as a priority to support understanding of forestry policy
  
• the Forestry Act be amended in accordance with the Supplement to the Forestry Policy so as to clarify that charcoal remains the most important illegal activity that generates income for the rural poor living along forest reserves
• the government should pilot a charcoal licensing system that ensures that benefits from charcoal sales are equitably shared between the community, the vendors, the forest reserve and the government
  
• clear benefits for individuals participating in forestry management should be spelt out in policy and legislation - this could be done through national guidelines on benefit sharing for communities participating in forest management
• the Department of Forestry compile desegregated data of forest dependent communities to enable them respond to each group accordingly - this process can also support the recommendation to pilot charcoal licensing as indicated above.