A Data-Driven CLA Approach to Address Illegal Charcoal in Malawi
Illegal charcoal is the most significant driver of forest cover loss in Malawi. Produced primarily in forest reserves created for catchment protection and biodiversity conservation, charcoal-led deforestation has resulted in extreme degradation of watersheds, multiplying the impacts of climate change across the country. Accordingly, the Government of Malawi (GoM) has identified charcoal-led deforestation as one of the national development priorities
In 2018, when USAID and UKaid designed the Modern Cooking for Healthy Forests (MCHF) Activity, more than 75% of urban households used illegal charcoal to meet their cooking energy needs, up from only 42% in 2011. At that time the prevailing legal framework was too weak to disrupt the illegal charcoal value chain, resulting in illegal charcoal being readily available and artificially cheap across Malawi’s cities. As a result, few companies invested in the production or distribution of cleaner cooking solutions, and those that, did faced significant obstacles.
Addressing the complex problems of reducing deforestation and increasing the use of cleaner cooking solutions required MCHF to collaborate closely with external stakeholders and to adopt an evidence-based approach to implementation of its interventions. MCHF strategically coordinated and collaborated with GoM, the private sector and donor partners through Communities of Practice to enhance implementation and create an environment of openness, data and information sharing that has led to greater solution-oriented collaboration among MCHF and external stakeholders. The application of CLA principles to activity design and implementation has been fundamental to achieving project results. Gains to-date include marked improvements in every facet of enforcement, which in-turn have reduced the availability of illegal charcoal and led to the price of illegal charcoal doubling. This has created space in the market and has helped to drive urban household adoption of cleaner cooking solutions. By the end of the project, MCHF expects to see alternative cooking energies adopted by more than 40 percent of urban households, resulting in significant decreases in illegal charcoal consumption and improved forest cover.