From despair to hope and revival —The remarkable restoration of Kasungu National Park
Kasungu National Park, a sprawling 2,316 square kilometre wilderness in Malawi, once teemed with life. Rolling miombo forests stretched as far as the eye could see, covering the rich alluvial soils and abundant wildlife under its rich green canopy.
Elephants, lions, buffaloes, rhinos, and vast herds of small game thrived within Kasungu and freely roamed the community areas around the park. Traditional hunting parties, comprising hundreds of people armed with bows and arrows, spears and knobkerries, used this small game to provide rich animal protein for their families.
“As long as hunting rituals were properly conducted and taboos observed; the hunts never disappointed”, recalls an 81-year-old former prolific hunter.
The waters of Rusa, Muntchenda, Kambala, and Kaswantchentche rivers shimmered under the African sun, providing a lifeline for both wildlife and the communities that lived alongside them. It was not uncommon to see buffaloes sharing watering holes with cattle, lions prowling the periphery and occasionally snatching cattle, hyenas and leopards menacing goats and sheep, black mambas occasionally slithering into homes, and birds of prey swooping on baby chickens. Yet the benefits derived from nature somehow compensated for the costs that people incurred.
“Elephants, lions, and rhinos used to pass through this village, usually at night or dawn; children would scour the elephant dung for undigested pumpkins which were purported to make the strongest milking gourds”, recalls one elder from Chisinga area.
The miombo forest in community areas was dense and bountiful, providing everything the surrounding communities needed: shrubs and herbs for a fresh wound, a concoction of bitter roots and bark for an aching stomach, a cocktail of herbs to steam away malaria, and a whole range of mushrooms, caterpillars, wild fruits, leaves, and tubers for food. For people of Nthunduwala, Lukwa, Chulu, and Chisinga, the forest was truly both a pharmacy and supermarket.
This idyllic coexistence was shattered by the introduction of industrial-scale Virginia tobacco farming from the mid-1970s. The Kasungu Flue Cured Tobacco Authority (KFCTA), along with other corporate tobacco giantsand individual tobacco growers carved massive farms out of the surrounding miombo landscapes. A ‘magolowazi’ (growers) industry, employing thousands of people, emerged to clear land for tobacco estates and deliver the ‘green gold’ to export markets.
To meet the insatiable demand for firewood used to cure the ‘green gold’, the tobacco industry continued its relentless assault on priceless miombo forests. By the early 2000s, the closed canopy miombo forests had disappeared the land became bare and fragile, mushrooms failed to grow, and small game retreated into the park. The pharmacy, the supermarket, and hunting parties were all shuttered. Welcome to deforestation and all its perils!
“One can hardly find any bowa (mushrooms), matondo or mapala (caterpillars), and masuku (wild fruits); the younger generation don’t know them, even adults are beginning to forget their names”, laments one elderly woman throwing her hand in the air as if appealing for divine intervention.
For surrounding communities, life continued, although times were tougher than before. Soil erosion and land degradation set in, crop yields fell progressively, and food and income insecurity increased. Women and girls have to walk longer distances to collect scarce firewood. The cumulative effect of the growing human population and massive deforestation created a real conservation challenge and existential threat for Kasungu National Park.
As communities ‘followed’ the small game, the pharmacy, and supermarket into the park, they became poachers and encroachers. The wildlife population steadily decreased; from over 2,000 elephants in the 1970s to under 100 by mid-2010s. Conservation policies were hastily reviewed and laws strengthened, law enforcement sprang into action while people cried foul for being arrested for trying to survive. Protected area conservation needed a serious rethink.
In 2017, Kasungu Wildlife Conservation for Community Development Association (KAWICCODA) was born as vehicle for enabling co-management and shared governance of Kasungu National Park while enabling surrounding communities to benefit from it. But KAWICCODA faced daunting challenges: a Site Level Assessment of Governance and Equity (SAGE) conducted in 2021 with support from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) pointed to high human population, poverty and livelihood vulnerability, massive deforestation, food and income insecurity, and weak protected area governance as the key threats to Kasungu National Park.
It was against this background that in May 2023 KAWICCODA launched the Community Livelihood Resilience Project with funding from the IUCN-BIOPAMA Medium Grants Facility. The project focused on producing high value legumes and small stock rearing to address food and income insecurity, and integrated natural forest regeneration to reverse deforestation and restore land and soil health.
A 36-tonne revolving Soya Seed Bank has provided seeds for this high-value crop to over 700 women and youth by November 2024. A Goat Pass-on Scheme has benefited over 120 women and youth who use their goats to fertilise fields and provide protein. Furthermore, 85 hectares of degraded miombo forest are under intensive rehabilitation using an integrated approach to forest regeneration that encompasses forest governance, natural regeneration, agroforestry, gulley reclamation, and restoring soil fertility.
All these activities involve partnerships and stakeholder collaboration, gender and youth, and capacity building, while addressing aspects of human-wildlife conflict, natural resource governance, and climate change. These are the critical issues that will make a difference between success and failure in the long term.
“As a Department, we are really pleased that KAWICCODA has consistently collaborated with us not only to tap into sector expertise, but also to ensure that project activities align with sector guidelines. This is unlike many NGOs who often go it alone, violate sector guidelines, and sow confusion and conflict in the community”; says a Ministry of Agriculture staffer.
The project has provided a crucial lifeline for beneficiaries -often women and youth – who have reduced their reliance on the park’s resources. Furthermore, the project has championed environmental awareness by educating communities about the importance of conservation, restoring degraded forest areas, and investing in land reclamation and soil health. The long-term benefits of a healthy park ecosystem include adapting to the impacts of climate change and driving local economic transformation.
“Poverty and livelihood vulnerability in our community demand immediate responses to which the soya seed bank and goat pass-on scheme are responding, but the ultimate goal is restoring the integrity of Kasungu National Park as a conservation area,” emphasises Siwinda Chimowa, program officer for the project.
The impact of the project has been profound. Anecdotal evidence points to reduced encroachment into the park, as families can support themselves through alternative livelihoods. Women are investing their soya cash proceeds in household utensils and clothes, school fees and uniforms, and fertiliser, while joining village savings and loans schemes. As external pressures on the park recede, we see hope for conservation.
Meanwhile, Kanyakatika village is abuzz with activity – transforming the 85-hectare degraded miombo forest. Farmers here are interplanting the wonder ‘fertiliser tree’ (Gliricidia) with their soya beans while also composting whatever agriculture waste they can find.
Relations between park management and the community have steadily improved. The number of joint activities has increase, people have more positive attitudes toward park officials, and have gained respect for conservation laws and the park as a conservation area.
Women who once risked it all by venturing into the park for firewood, mushrooms, thatch grass, caterpillars, and other forest products now have alternative sustainable sources of income. The use of goat manure as a fertiliser is slowly improving soil fertility, and reducing the need for expensive chemical fertilisers that harm the soil in the long term.
In 2023, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), with USAID funding, translocated 280 elephants, 80 buffaloes, wild dogs, and other species into Kasungu National Park. Although this helped to restore wildlife within the park, cases of human-elephant conflict (HEC) spiked dramatically. In response, IFAW started constructing an electrified fence on the 130-kilometre park border.
The spike in human-wildlife conflict cases remains a concern. KAWICCODA is leading the charge to put in place effective HEC prevention and mitigation measures through multistakeholder approaches to address key drivers and impacts. Government ministries covering different sectors need to start talking to each other, while people on the ground have to re-learn how to coexist with dangerous wild animals.
“It beggars belief that the Ministry of Lands grants farm leases adjacent to the park, and Ministry of Agriculture promotes crop production on the same farms, while tobacco out-grower schemes thrive on the edge of the park – knowing very well they are at variance with conservation of the Park”, wonders Malidadi Langa, Board Chairman of KAWICCODA.
The future of Kasungu National Park looks promising. The KAWICCODA project, through its innovative approach, has not only addressed the immediate livelihood needs of the communities but has also laid the foundation for the long-term restoration of the Park.
This IUCN-BIOPAMA funded project is a rare experiment in investing in human wellbeing as a conservation strategy for protected and conserved areas bounded by high density human settlements. It’s being watched with interest by protected area agencies, development partners, and international NGOs who dominate the community conservation space. It may mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in conservation – from an exclusively inward-looking approach focused on parks to one that also embraces the needs of neighbouring communities.
