Our Copperbelt: Forests on Farms project began way back in 2015, protecting and regenerating degraded forests in partnership with farmers in the districts of Luanshya, Mpongwe and Ndola, creating incentives through forest-friendly livelihoods like beekeeping.
Today, the major redesign that the project has undergone is a successful indicator of the project’s successes so far, and its maturity: based on lessons learned, the project will adjust some of its interventions to lead to improved outcomes, based around strong local ownership and long-term sustainability.
The biggest change is our major new community forest restoration component in Imanda. By setting aside areas of forest or other sensitive ecosystems to be legally protected in the form of Community Forest Areas or heritage and cultural sites, these areas will avoid being allocated for settlement and/or agricultural expansion.
The project’s beekeeping programme is being expanded, and other livelihoods added this year will be tailored towards sustainable agriculture and agroforestry. Together, these advances herald the Copperbelt project’s evolution into a larger, landscape-scale approach.
Abbreviations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
ANR | Assisted Natural Regeneration | FA | Farmers’ Association |
Chinchi FA | Chinchi Wababili Women Farmers’ Association | FD | Forestry Department |
CFMG | Community Forest Management Group | LFCA | Luanshya Forest Commodities Association |
CFRs | Community Forest Rangers | DFA | Mpongwe District Farmers’ Association |
These restoration activities, carried out in partnership with the Forestry Department and the surrounding communities, will aim to strengthen community ownership and biodiversity conservation in the “Imanda Community Conservation Area”.
A review of the constitution was carried out in collaboration with the Imanda communities during 2023. It now includes a redrawn Imanda Community Forest Management Area map as one forest area, as recommended by the Forestry Department. The total area is 2238 ha (mushitu patches plus grassland). The session was attended by all key stakeholders which included the Forestry Department, traditional leaders, the Imanda CFMG General Committee, and the general public.
Imanda, which is 25 km west of Mpongwe and encompasses Lake Kashiba, a National Monument, is a large mushitu (swamp forest), which differs from miombo in that it is evergreen and more dense. Around two thirds is grassland with some tree cover. The area is partly surrounded by dambo (shallow wetland) as well as some villages and cultivated land, but otherwise it remains relatively undisturbed.
An application for recognition by the Imanda Community Forest Management Group (Imanda CFMG) was submitted to the Forestry Department in October, and it was accepted in January 2024. This new farmer association will be based in the Ndubeni Chiefdom of Mpongwe District and will cover all the 21 villages within a 5km radius of Imanda forest and Lake Kashiba.
To update the local stakeholders on the new focus of the redesigned Copperbelt project, there was a visit to the proposed Imanda Community Forestry Area in July. The participants were Provincial and District Forestry Offices, the WeForest Copperbelt project team and the Imanda CFMG, and all found the trip very useful to familiarize themselves with the forest and vegetation within the project area.
The visitors to Imanda found the height of the trees very impressive – some are 20 metres or more – and for some it was their first time seeing a thick evergreen forest like this. The community members told them about some of the rich cultural history that is associated with the area, as well as the various livelihoods that the forest offers, including fishing and collecting herbs. The team was also interested to learn how the area acts as a water recharge zone as well as headwaters for Lake Kashiba.
Recommendations from the visit included a proposal to increase the planned number of Honorary Forest Officers (HFOs) – who will be carrying out law enforcement throughout the Imanda Community Conservation Area – from 4 to 8, considering the size and swampy nature of the forest. Accordingly, 8 community members were selected for recruitment as Honorary Forestry Officers (HFOs) and successfully cleared by the Zambia Police Service in 2023, and their applications for recognition were submitted to the Forestry Department.
Another recommendation was the need for the communities to form Forest User Groups that would be responsible for ensuring the sustainability and proper management of livelihoods such as fishing in the forest area. This would enhance community participation and assist the Imanda CFMG to be more efficient and effective in controlling the area.
The data from a preliminary survey of the Imanda Community Forest Area, which was carried out in the first half of the year by the Forestry Department and Imanda CFMG representatives, is being analyzed and collected into a report. Four permanent monitoring plots have been set up so far, and in 2024 more will be added to better represent the many different vegetation types.
Our collaboration with Mpongwe Radio resulted in the launch of the Living Green Radio Programme at the end of 2023. The regular broadcast aims to create awareness of climate change among Mpongwe residents, and featured WeForest Copperbelt project staff among its first guests. The launch was covered by the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), as shown in the video.
Beekeeping remained the main established and functional value chain in 2023, and the redesign of the project will build on the success of the programme by adding value and scaling it up.
The great news in beekeeping in 2023 was that the year’s honey harvests showed a 25% increase on 2022. More than 45,950 kg of honey (131% of the annual target of 32,000 kg) was harvested from 2680 beehives from 704 farmers. The average amount of honey harvested per farmer was 65kg, whereas each farmer harvested 52kg in 2022. The average amount of honey harvested per occupied beehive was 17.1kg – that’s a 14% increase on 2022, when each occupied hive yielded 15kg.
The three Farmers’ Associations (Chinchi, LFCA and DFA) generated a total of US$7899 from honey sales. With this substantial increase in income, the three Farmers’ Associations revised the benefit sharing mechanism to motivate farmers, who now receive an extra 5% of the profits: meaning that on average, families each received an income of US$71 gross (or US$46 net) each.
The Farmers Associations are now taking full responsibility for the beekeeping scheme, including organizing training, providing extension services, and conducting spot checks with support from the District Agricultural Office.
During 2023 the oldest Farmers’ Association, the LFCA in Luanshya, received grants from Zambia Agribusiness and Trade Project (ZATP) and Community Development Fund (CDF). With this, it bought basic honey processing equipment, a light truck and more than 600 beehives, as well as building a warehouse/honey processing plant.
The LFCA also integrated the bee mentor and Community Forest Ranger programmes in 2023 (bee mentors will carry out patrols) and are strongly committed to taking over law enforcement activities in the Luanshya district from 2024 onwards.
With the redesign, the project also plans to explore partnerships that will bring in opportunities to diversify its sustainable, viable and profitable forest-friendly livelihoods, including by promoting the optimum use of the farmers’ assisted natural regeneration plots to generate incomes.
Accordingly, agroforestry was added in 2023 as an alternative source of income from the ANR plots. Agroforestry is the incorporation of trees and shrubs into the agricultural landscape through intercropping, silvopasture management or live fencing, where the boundary of the farm, vegetable garden or pasture is planted with trees. It’s a way for smallholder farmers to sustainably produce charcoal or firewood or increase their crop yields while natural resources such as soil and water are improved by the presence of the trees, which also sequester carbon as they grow. In neighbouring Katanino, where agroforestry trees are intercropped with maize and soya beans and grown on pasture plots with sun hemp and velvet beans, the farmers have seen an improvement in crop yields of 40% compared to conventional farming.
During 2023, 200 new farmers (142 men (71%) and 58 women (29%)) were selected with guidance from the three districts’ Farmers Associations to receive training in Sustainable Forest Management, including beekeeping and agroforestry activities, so that they can set up both beekeeping and agroforestry in their plots.
On average, each farmer set aside 6.7ha (28.8% higher than last year, and the highest since the project started in 2015). 1250 beehives (100% of the annual target) were distributed to 174 of the trained farmers and installed, bringing the total area under Sustainable Forest Management on farms in 2023 to 846.67 (130% of the 650ha target).
224 fruit tree seedlings (112 washington navel oranges and 112 avocados) were distributed to 112 farmers from the Chinchi Wababili and DFA associations, with each farmer receiving two fruit trees, one of each. A seedling survival monitoring survey planned for 2023 to determine the 2021 and 2022 survival rates of fruit seedlings could not take place and will be done in 2024 to inform the expansion of “climate-smart agriculture” under the redesigned project: agroforestry and conservation agriculture, which includes minimum tillage, crop rotation and crop cover on permanent agricultural plots, with no moving around.
The project plans to explore other opportunities for diversification of livelihoods, such as a dairy development project. This project is at the proposal stage and will be submitted for funding in the first quarter of 2024.
Every hectare under restoration is mapped with GPS points to generate polygons (areas on a map) that are assigned to sponsors. Permanent monitoring plots are established in our sites and our forestry and science teams conduct surveys to monitor progress of biomass growth, tree density, survival rate and species diversity, among other indicators. Where social impacts are also critical, we measure socio- economic indicators such as the number of beneficiaries, people trained, and income generated from forest-friendly livelihood activities.
Please visit our What We Do web page for more information.
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