In Malawi, miombo woodlands constitute 92.4% of the country’s total forest area and play a critical role in the livelihoods of Malawian communities because they provide various ecosystem services such as firewood. Increased population growth has led to higher demand for wood resources and the woodlands have been deforested at an annual rate of approximately 0.9%, which is among the highest rates in Africa.
Lake Malawi National Park (LMNP) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in southern Malawi. There are the five village enclaves within LMNP. The park permits for the collection of deadwood as the firewood to enclaved village’s women with some restrictions. While the previous study, which had conducted in 1994 demonstrated that the park’s woodlands produce sufficient deadwood to sustain the domestic fuelwood needs, the population growth in recent years would cause the higher demand and thus woodland degradation in the park. To sustain the provision of wood resources, there is an urgent need to implement sustainable forest management measures, including estimation of productivity, forest biomass and yield.

In this presentation, we will report the result of the preliminary study to estimate the amount of the annual deadwood production in LMNP.