Ask the questions.

8.30.09

Things are going well, and this past week was unforgettable. I got my immigration situation sorted out, and wrapped up my first week in the field for COMACO, travelling extensively throughout the Zumwanda Chiefdom in Eastern Zambia. The field work is going well, despite daily delays. I have not yet learned how, if indeed it is even possible, to make things happen according to an arranged schedule here. In the evenings, before heading home, the driver and I agree that we will depart at 8am, but at 8am there is no Land Cruizer, or somebody is gone with the keys, or it's not fueled up and we can’t find the person who doles out the cash from our pre-approved budget to fuel up, and so on and so forth. It either drives you crazy, or you smile and accept it….. or a bit of each. On Thursday we were supposed to leave at 8am and at 10:15 when everything was finally set to go the driver took 10 excruciating minutes to dust off the dashboard, sweep out the floors and wipe the windows. It’s hard to stay patient as you watch the morning slip away, but in the end the work is getting done so why fight it? When we're going, it's been going well, and we get home at 8 or 9pm, eat and sleep.

Not knowing what to expect, I was woefully unprepared on Tuesday, our first day. Since we had discussed spending the day in Chief Zumwanda’s village, locating and meeting with local point people who could explain the best routes for us to take through the Chiefdom to reach the villages and areas of interest, I was expecting a relatively short day, maybe lunch in the village, and in the case that we did get started on the actual field visits, that I would at least be in the vehicle for the majority of the time. HA! We arrived in Zumwanda, and we were immediately thrown in front of Chief Zumwanda, where clapping and bowing we explained our plans and heard the Chief’s feelings about the state of natural resources in his kingdom. We were quickly given permission to pursue our work and I have since learned that he is one of COMACO’s biggest supporters in the region. Lesson: If you don’t ask the questions, don’t expect the information!

We were assigned the Chief’s son, the prince……. Prince Albert, to accompany us around the Chiefdom, and after watching a traditional dance being practiced for an upcoming rally of the Chiefs in Chapata, we immediately set off. Without hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, water or food we set off at 10:30 to start village visits, with Albert and Mwangala (COMACO’s IT/Data Manager) in the cab with the driver, Hefta, and myself and Zebron (COMACO’s Area Manager/Extension Agent) standing in the back of the pick-up collecting GPS Data. It was a long day. We stopped in 12 villages, interviewing headmen and learning the location of each of the settlements that has encroached into the Lundazi National Forest. At each village Albert expertly explained our mission to the headmen who graciously told us how long they have been settled in this location, where they came from, what crops they are growing and how they are growing them, and the general condition of life in the area. We reached the furthest settlement in the forest around 4:30 pm, already tired, hungry and thirsty, and while visiting the farmer’s fields we split a raw cassava, pulled fresh from the ground, which managed to get me home standing that night. What Mwangala had not bothered to tell me – because I hadn’t yet asked - was that the reason we didn’t buy food ahead of time was that the budget had not yet been obligated in time for us to get cash. Remarkably, I heard not one complaint the entire day, although we have joked about it much since. We finished at the last village around 6pm, and set off for the three hour drive back. Between the sun and the wind I achieved a nice pink tone – not red – but my lips are only now, a week later, recovering from the day! It seems that once every visit to Africa I get one horrible case of burned, chapped, peeling lips….. the worst. It was an incredible day, but I have not forgotten my hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, SPF lip-balm, and plenty of food and water since. It only takes one day like that to learn!

The purpose of these visits to settlements inside the National Forests, and Game Management Areas is help determine the extent and rate of forest clearing in these “protected areas” and focus COMACO’s future activities in the area. Quite sobering.... to be honest, I’m not sure what these designations even mean as there is no enforcement and people therefore view such areas free forest land to clear and farm. Only the remoteness controls the flow. I am gaining a clearer picture of where the worst problems exist (areas most afflicted by charcoal making and forest clearing for farms and settlements), and will helping COMACO focus future efforts on these areas. On Thursday we sat down with an old man living with his family in the Lundazi National Forest, who was able to list 43 villages inside the Forest, in the immediate area. The term “village” describes settlements that can be as small as a single family's footprint, although it is surprising how large that footprint can become with a couple of decades and a few generations on the land. I’m estimating that the average family is consuming 0.5-1.5 hectares per year, per generation, with depleted fields left fallow to regenerate voluntarily, which is a very, very slow process on these poor soils. This clearing, combined with heavy hunting and the mid dry-season burning of the remainder of the forest, which typically derive from a farmers’ field clearing burns and continue uncontrolled into the forest, is seriously degrading these areas. It seems like 75% of the forest I have seen on the plateau has been burned this year, and the frequency of these burns and the resulting low fuel loads, would seem to be the only thing keeping them from entirely killing the forest. As it is they are just hanging on. This is the case on the upland plateau, but I understand that the environmental conditions in the Luangwa River are much, much better, and I am really looking forward to seeing these less impacted areas in the weeks to come.

My hope, however, is that COMACO can work with the Zambian Forest Department and Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) to slow the rate of additional forest clearing in the "protected areas" through a combination of education, training, and enforcement, and support reforestation of abandoned fields in fruit and nut trees that can support a villages food needs and provide a surplus that can be sold commercially. In addition, planting lumber and fuel species (including legumes to replenish the soil) would help supply other human demands, further reducing the rate of deforestation. Mushroom growing and honey production, fish farming and other COMACO supported activities can also help diversify nutritional intake and fill the time gap while orchards grow, and COMACO is well poised to develop markets for such commodities and processes to add value (dried fruit, spiced nuts), and invest in research into determining appropriate species and the development of seedling nurseries if they don't already exist.

We have one more day in Zumwanda before I move the process for Mogodi the neighboring Chiefdom to the north. In a week and a half I will be ready to move up to Chama for 1-2 weeks to repeat the process there, after which I will return to Lundazi for 1-2 weeks to wrap up synthesize data for the Eastern Region, before moving my entire base to Nyimba, seven hours Southwest, where I’ll be doing the final phase of this work.