Deforestation

A picture is worth a thousand words.  This past weekend, Ben, one of the teachers, was hiking in the rainforest of Malawi when he came across a horrible of deforestation with the illegal cutting down of major trees.  After the initial shock of what he was seeing, he snapped a bunch of photographs.

He immediately took action, by sending an email to all the staff the photos and what he had observed.  He also posted those on the Lilongwe Chat Google Group...

Fellow Teachers,

This weekend Benny, Laurie and I visited Ntichsi Forest Reserve for the first time this year.  During our hike we discovered two large areas where loggers were actively cutting down massive hardwood primary trees.  (Please see pictures in this email.)

We stopped in at Ntchisi Lodge to find out if the managers had any information on this matter. To our horror,  the managers said they had recently found 12 logging sites! They have spoken to the village chief, but thus far nothing has been done to halt the illegal logging.

Does anyone have any information on who to contact to file a report?

Time is running out on Malawi's last sliver of rain forest!

Many thanks!

Ben

It didn’t take a day for him to see his mailbox inundated with messages, from private people as well as NGOs and local wildlife groups.  It even went as far as having a reporter contact him and saying he would write a story about this deforestation case.  Now, it appears that the government is getting involved, with talks of a meeting scheduled to happen to see how those cases of illegal deforestation can be stopped and those perpetrating them can be punished. 

The hope is that the momentum remains and that real action takes place with a stop on illegal tree cutting.  Malawi is a beautiful country that should remain in its state.