Malama Chiefdom Invests In Educated-Related Projects Using Revenue From Forest Carbon Fees

Bordering South Luangwa National Park, nestled deep in the forest, inaccessible during the rainy season due to the poor road network, and in the heart of Elephant territory, the residents of Malama Chiefdom are at the forefront of managing human-wildlife interaction on a daily basis.

“For us, it is very real. We put up wire fences with tins on (to hear them coming) to prevent elephants from crop-raiding at night, but during the day we often find them near the school and on our commute. The hippos and baboons are also big fans of our crops. And we have to be careful of being alone in the bush too far from the village because of the lions.

Many of us had to learn outside before the CFMG built this new classroom block. During the rainy season, it was miserable – our books got wet, we got wet… and during the winter months it would be very cold. It made it hard to concentrate and we did not feel motivated to attend school in such conditions”.

“Now we can learn freely indoors without time or space constraints and I can pursue my dream of becoming a Doctor”.

Emmanuel Zulu, Malanga Primary School.

Catering from Preschool to Grade 9, up until 2021, Malanga School only had one classroom block to educate 114 students. Realizing the need to expand, and placing immense value on the education of its future generation, the Malama Community Forest Management Group used forest carbon fees to invest in a number of school infrastructure projects since partnering with the Luangwa Community Forests Project under the UN’s REDD+ Impact Model. In addition to education-related projects, given the remoteness of the Chiefdom, the CFMG has also invested in a number of healthcare projects, such as a health outreach station, and used forest carbon fees to fund part of a new maternity ward. This limits the amount of travel that the residents of Malama need to do and helps to reduce the exposure to human-wildlife interaction that the Chiefdom experiences.

An estimated 447 Households are benefiting from projects implemented using revenue from REDD+, and a total of 21,577 Hectares of forests are being protected.

Delivering award-winning credits, delivering world-class benefits, find out more about BCP’s Luangwa Community Forests Project.