Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (DFIDCA)

Managing Institute:
Department For International Development (DFIDCA)

Project Code: 037-502-001	Start Date: 26/03/1992	End Date: No End Date
Commitment: £532,000	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - TC

Project Background:
Many problems have been encountered by the Department of Forestry (the legal authority) in managing the Mulanje Mountain forest resources; some of these are:

* Population pressure: Mulanje Mountain forest reserve is in one of the districts with the highest population density of Malawi. The pressure from the excess population is being felt by the Department of Forestry through serious encroachment into the forest reserve, excessive exploitation of the natural forests for firewood and construction materials, and illegal hunting.

* Excessive exploitation of Mulanje cedar: the local and international demand for Mulanje cedar has for a long time been very hgh and the licensing system in the past has tended to permit exploitation levels which far exceed annual wood yields.

* Lack of a suitable forest planning framework: institutional and organisational bottlenecks do exist to the production of suitable management plans which could be a basis for the rational management of the Mulanje Mountain forest reserve resources.

Project Objectives:
To identify and institute appropriate and effective multiple-use management systems which will lead to sustainable utilisation of the Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve resources, for the benefit of Malawi in general and the surrounding rural communities in particular.

Intended Outputs:
Increased long-term benefits from the Forest Reserve for the surrounding rural communities.

Rational anad sustainable utilisation of the Mulanje Mountain forest reserve resources.

Improved public understanding and support for rational management and utilisation of the Mulanje Mountain forest reserve resources.

Improved planning capacity in the areas of integrated mountain forest resource management.

More data on the forest resources of the mountain.