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Malawi, among the very poorest countries on Earth, suffers from one of the worse rates of deforestation. TREEZ, our small conservation project operating as a Not for Profit in Malawi, and as a charity in the UK, aims to reverse the trend through community empowerment.

Due to the need for fuel wood and timber, deforestation is rampant and uncontrolled throughout Malawi. Forests are being cut down at an alarming rate with no end in sight.

With over 70% of the population living in extreme poverty (World Bank), a growing population, and consequently a decreasing amount of arable land for families to farm, the pressures on Malawi's natural resources are growing exponentially. The reality is that when people are desperately poor, they are unable to make forward-thinking decisions. It is all about the now. 

Forests are being cut down all over Malawi, it is happening quietly, discretely, mostly away from main roads and urban areas but the hundreds of bags of charcoal produced from these forests are visible along all main roads, in plain sight.

A few people find this heartbreaking, but not enough find this alarming. In fact, general opinion about global deforestation often seems to be that this is a minor problem compared to the health issues or educational issues facing the Global South. But the trees and conservation are intrinsically linked to health and wellbeing. If we do not look after our land, our soils, our trees, the land itself will not be able to sustain the needs of its population. 

Malawi will be facing much more than a 'fuel wood famine' - it will be facing a full-blown humanitarian crisis with little or no access to water, impoverished soils which will generate little or no harvests to feed its population, and no money to import what it needs. We are not being alarmists, we are being realists. It is happening and it breaks our hearts.

TREEZ is trying to reverse the trend and desperately needs your help: