It is a sunny afternoon in October. From a far, a cloud that engulfs the gigantic Viphya Plantation leaves you convinced that the dreaded cold weather associated with this manmade resource lies ahead.
But move a bit closer and see how misled you are. It is hotter than your imaginations. And the clouds you saw from a far are clouds of smoke. Below them, fires uncontrollably ingest the predominantly Pinus patura plantation. And you will see that the trees being consumed give energy to the fires to keep raging.
Make no mistake. These are both old and young trees.
Fires have of late undoubtedly shot to top of the list of factors behind the fast depletion of the Viphya plantation which is billed as the largest manmade forest reserve in Africa. It sits on a staggering 53,000 hectares (ha) of land but 20,000 ha of this is under a concession by Raiply.
“This year’s (2010) fires have never been seen before,” said a forestry officer stationed at Nthungwa forest reserve, one of the three major sections under government control in the plantation – the others being Lusangazi and Luwawa.
“You will see fires from Lusangazi on the northern tip of the plantation down to Luwawa on the southern tip. And this year’s fires have even affected the area that is under a concession by Raiply. This has never been the case before.”
The first major fires started in the Lusangazi reserve around September and the effects were so devastating. People around Elamuleni, a trading centre along the M1 road within the forest, lost property worth millions and included livestock and stalls.
And by November, the fires had spread to a bigger part of the neighbouring Nthungwa forest reserve. According to details sourced from Nthungwa forest station, up to 82 ha had been consumed within three days that also saw two lives lost. Other properties including milling machines also went with the fires.
Collateral damage?
In all, 162 ha of Nthungwa reserve which covers 8,847 ha had been consumed in the fire since September. This, according to the reserves Technical Officer Charles Lungu, is a deplorable situation.
“A number of factors have led to these fires but everything revolves around policies government has instituted to properly manage the forest and save it from complete depletion,” said John Nkunika, a foreman with a milling company in the forest.
“The coming in of new logging prices and the cooperatives has left some of those who operated businesses in the plantation frustrated. Most of them cannot manage the new prices as such they leave.”
Government introduced new prices per cubic metre of forest products in a move to help ward off foreigners who took advantage of the low prices to deplete the country’s forest mainly the Viphya plantation.
The prices were hiked to K10,000 from around K1,200. And the coming in of cooperatives was meant to bring soberness in harvesting wood in the forest.
Nkunika said many operators have taken the two developments as a plot by politicians to ensure that only politicians benefit from the resource. This, he said, has borne a feeling that if those who are leaving cannot benefit from the plantation then nobody else should benefit. Hence they set the plantation on fire.
“Apart from those that have been fished out, most fires are also started by their employees upon their being declared jobless. People are earning a living out of this forest,” he added.
“While some are employed in the milling section, others carry the planks from the bush to near the roadside at a fee. Many more carry the remaining logs and sell them as firewood. Hence, stopping milling angers a lot of people.”
Structural conduciveness
The fires have usually been aided by a huge bush overgrowth below the trees in the plantation. This has seen fires spread vastly within a short period of time. And the situation is complicated by the fact that there is insufficient labour force to fight the infernos.
Officers at Nthungwa forest station revealed that there are just around 20 people on standby to manage everything in the entire reserve including fighting fires instead of a possible 40. Plantations Manager Seliano Chipokosa confirmed the shortfall and added that most of the labour force was ageing.
“Insufficient manpower aside, those of us available here do not have the equipment with which to fight the fires. You will be shocked to learn that we use panga knives to create breaks when fighting the fires,” said a forestry officer who declined to be named.
“We are supposed to use chainsaws when doing this but we don’t have chainsaws. We also don’t have fire fighting vehicles which means we have to wait to get to where fires start. And we fight the fires while barefooted.”
Debilitating factors
Further, the ability to fight or contain the fires is defeated because of failure. Chipokosa said in an interview that the plantation’s management has failed to upgrade about 600km of a road network in the plantation citing lack of capacity.
“Out of the 600km, we only upgraded about 190km. We also have a network of firebreaks which we were supposed to scrape last season but we have not done that. Therefore, it almost runs to zero when it comes to preparing to prevent occurrences of fires,” he said.
“Fire management is generally pathetic. We have the personnel [that could fight the fires] but there were only two vehicles last season. The means we use in fire fighting are also very basic.”
He said with all resources available, it would take manpower of between 25 and 35 to successfully deal with the fires.
Any hope?
Chipokosa said the plantation’s management was engaging the Mzuzu city council fire brigade for a possible helping hand in fighting the fires. However, this appears a long-term dream especially because the assembly itself lacks such equipment.
But if all the wrongs, including the pathetic fire fighting means, were corrected the cloud engulfing the plantation would only be that from the humidity created by the many trees.
Otherwise, the plantation is on its way to complete depletion and the country would have failed miserably in achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 which seeks to ensure environmental sustainability.
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