International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—The study was conducted along the Nkanya-Lusewa rivers in Zomba-Malosa Forest Reserve in Domasi area in Malawi to come up with a better integrated indigenous and technocrat model for tree restoration and test its effectiveness in Nkanya-Lusewa river catchment as a hot spot. The study focused on 28 gardens along the rivers whose owners encroached the forest reserve and willed to participate in the study. In total we planted 228 seedlings of S.siamea, F.albida and A.lebbeck within a distance of 10 m on either side of the study rivers using integrated approach. We found that out of 101 S.seamea seedlings planted in February,2014 in the study gardens, 81%, 68%, 51% and 38% survived by May, August, November and April respectively and the survival rates for F. albida were 83%, 68%, 39% and 5% while for A. lebbeckwere84%, 81%, 58% and 51% respectively for the same months. Most of the selected farmers fully and willingly participated in the research activity. We further found that tree survival rates varied among the gardens due to transplanting shock, post-planting care differences, soil moisture variation and incidence of bush fires. The research has therefore found that trees planted using Integrated Indigenous-Technocrat Model along these rivers survived better for the same period than those previous planted implying that full community involvement in forest restoration is crucial.

Index Terms—Forest restoration, indigenous-technocrat knowledge, survivorship.

G. G. Moyo is with Malawi University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 5196, Limbe, Malawi (e-mail: gmoyo@must.ac.mw).
M. Chikuni and S. Chiotha are with Chancellor College, University of Malawi, P.O. Box 280, Zomba, Malawi (e-mail: mchikuni@cc.ac.mw, schiotha@cc.ac.mw).

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Cite: Gift G. Moyo, Marlene Chikuni, and Sosten Chiotha, "Effectiveness of Integrated Indigenous-Technocrat Model in Restoring Controversial Forest Reserve Hotspot: The Case of Nkanya and Lusewa Rivers in Domasi Area, Zomba District," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 30-36, 2017.