Travel across Malawi—from the rugged plateaus of Rumphi to the hills of Phalombe—and a heartbreaking trend reveals itself: our mountains are becoming bare. Forests that once regulated water, supported biodiversity and sustained livelihoods are quickly vanishing. The bare hills of Malawi are not just an environmental concern; they are a warning. But what exactly is driving this deforestation? Is poverty solely to blame?
Poverty, no doubt, plays a critical role. Most Malawians rely on forests for survival—firewood, charcoal, timber and even medicine. With over half the population living below the poverty line, it’s no surprise that forests are being cleared at alarming rates. When people have no alternative sources of energy or income, they turn to the trees.
This cycle was famously captured in the 1987 Brundtland Report, which introduced the idea of a vicious poverty-environment trap. It noted that “poor people are forced to overuse environmental resources to survive on a daily basis, and their impoverishment of their environment further impoverishes them”. Malawi embodies this trap. A struggling farmer clears a patch of forest to grow maize. A jobless youth burns trees for charcoal to earn income. And, so, the forest shrinks—and the poverty deepens.
But poverty alone doesn’t explain everything. Malawi has laws and policies intended to protect forests. The National Forest Policy of 2016 emphasises sustainable forest management, participatory governance, the promotion of alternative energy sources and strict enforcement of forestry laws. It recognises that forests are vital not only for climate resilience and biodiversity but also for national food security, given their role in protecting watersheds, regulating rainfall and maintaining soil fertility.
And, yet, forest cover continues to decline. The gap between policy and practice is wide. Implementation is weak. Forest reserves are left unguarded. Law enforcement is underfunded. In many areas, forest guards are outnumbered and outmatched by charcoal cartels operating with impunity. Community forest committees, once active, are now defunct in several districts due to lack of support or corruption.
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Moreover, land pressure and population growth make conservation difficult. With more demand to feed growing families, people are pushed into marginal lands, including protected forest areas. Traditional conservation practices— like sacred groves and communal taboos—are fading, eroded by modern economic pressures.
This also has direct implications on national food security. As forests vanish, Malawi becomes more vulnerable to droughts, erratic rainfall and soil erosion—threats that undermine crop production and deepen hunger. No wonder, then, that seasonal hunger persists even in fertile districts. Without forest cover, water tables drop, rivers dry up and the agricultural calendar becomes harder to predict.
Still, we cannot ignore poverty’s grip. When daily survival is a struggle, environmental protection becomes a distant concern. A mother in Chiradzulu choosing between cooking food or preserving trees cannot be faulted for picking firewood over forest cover. That’s the harsh reality.
What’s needed is a serious national effort to break this cycle. First, Malawi must scale up clean and affordable energy access in both urban and rural areas. Solar cookstoves, briquettes and biogas should be subsidised and promoted like fertiliser. Secondly, community forest management needs stronger legal and financial backing. If communities benefit directly from conserving forests, they will protect them.
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Thirdly, forest education must go mainstream— from primary schools to radio shows—linking deforestation with hunger, drought and poverty. Lastly, the government must fully implement the National Forest Policy, not just on paper, but in budgets, training and performance monitoring. Poverty may be a major driver of forest extinction in Malawi, but it’s not the only one. Governance failures, weak enforcement and energy poverty all share the blame. We must start treating forests not just as trees but as living infrastructure—central to food systems, water security and national survival. As the African proverb warns, “The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced them that because his handle was wood, he was one of them.” If we keep ignoring the silent cries of our disappearing forests, we risk turning Malawi into a dry, eroded, and lifeless land. And the poor will suffer most.
