1. PEN STUDY MALAWI (Chimaliro and Liwonde Forests) PRELIMINARY RESULTS
Thabbie M.S. Chilongo
“Putting PEN to Paper” Workshop, Bogor, Indonesia,
23-28 March, 2009

2. Context: Study Sites Chimaliro Liwonde Forest area (km2) 160 274
Dominant forest types
Branchystegia and Jubernadia woodlands
Branchystegia and Uapaca woodlands
Altitude (m asl)
Rainfall (mm/annum)
Temperature (0C)
No. of villages sampled 28 11
Mean village size (people)
298
479
Village size range (people)
Mean hh size (people)
5.9
5.0
No. of hh sampled
215
191
Other differences
Away from major cities and towns
Ethnically homogenous
Near major cities and towns
Ethnically heterogenous

3. Household Income (US$) Sources
Total
Cash
Cash Share (%)
Subst.
Subst. Share (%)
DFI
15.55
2.42 16
13.12 84
ForDrI
(3.05)
1.13
(37)
(4.18)
137
Fish
0.31
0.19 62
0.12 38
NFEI
22.58
22.08 98
0.50 2
Aqua.
0.13
0.05 35
0.08 65
Crop
41.27
11.75 28
29.53 72
Livstock
4.43
2.00 45
2.43 55
Wage
18.54
Business
8.75
Other
9.64
Figures in parentheses are negative
DFI = net direct forest income; ForDrI = net forest derived income; NFEI = net non-forest environmental income

4. Income Distribution

5. Income Sources and Seasonality

6. Key Forest and Environmental Products
Net Income (US$)
Percentof Total Income
Cash Income (US$)
Cash %
Subst. Income (US$)
Subst. %
Firewood
4108 41
466 11
3642 89
Thatching grass
1240 13
120 10
1117 90
Mushroom
1235 12
280 23
956 77
Poles
1104
503 46
601 54

7. Income Composition and Poverty

8. Other Patterns Only 2% reported using forests as a coping mechanism
Coping Mechanisms
Distance Correlation:
Only 2% reported using forests as a coping mechanism
Common coping mechanisms (frequency-ranked):
Spend cash savings
Casual labour work
Selling assets
Assistance from friends and relatives
Direct forest income
To road
To district mkt 0.031
To forest mkt 0.054
Forest-derived income
To road
To district mkt
To forest mkt

9. Policies and Overall Findings
Major policy impact
Government subsidy programme
Forest co-management programme
Surprising results
Wide income variations especially for DFI and NFEI in Q2 and Q3 respectively.
Composition of DFI and NFEI needs to be re-checked
Average income in the lower quintile is too low (US$0.84)
Exciting results
Seasonality income distribution is as expected.
Agriculture income share comparable to agriculture GDP share.