PCI’s Njira Integrated Water Resources Management Program
In Malawi’s Shire River basin and Lake Chilwa, activities such as deforestation have degraded the environment, increased soil erosion, and reduced water availability and land productivity for local farmers. By bringing together community members from these affected areas, PCI helped build an understanding of the negative impact of deforestation and rehabilitated 20 watersheds in Balaka and Machinga Districts.
Through the community-based Njira Integrated Watershed Management program, PCI used a people-centered approach to help communities delineate their watershed and develop plans to manage natural resources.
Using large scale watershed approaches and adapting them to a micro-level context, Njira’s strategies are tailored to address each micro watershed’s unique needs. This process includes taking into account social, economic and environmental issues, as well as local community interests to mitigate short-term disasters and the longer-term impacts of climate change.
In this way, PCI can address the unique underlying causes of vulnerability by accounting for each individual community’s development goals, livestock management, pasture/fodder production, agricultural efficiency, rural energy management, and potential for natural resource-based enterprises like beekeeping.
Njira’s integrated watershed management approach fits within the five priority Forest Landscape Restoration interventions identified by the Government of Malawi, which are:
- Agricultural technologies
- Soil and water conservation
- Forest management
- River and streambank restoration
- Community forests and woodlots