Restore the incredible Zambian Miombo forests

This little cutie is one of the new (goat) kids born to the herd belonging to the Kebamba village goat producers. Ten kids have been welcomed by the 48 does and 10 bucks of the species Capra hircus (domestic goat). The project supports Katanino farmers to take up goat production as a forest-friendly alternative livelihood, not only for its income-generating potential but also because the milk and meat improves their own household nutrition and food security. Goat rearing has a significant economic importance in rural areas where climatic conditions are not favorable for cattle-rearing or other farming practices.

Our Katanino project received a very important visit in May! A French Government delegation and staff from the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment visited to find out about local community involvement in sustainable forest management activities. They met the Honorary Forest Officers from the community who are responsible for forest law enforcement, and visited a demo plot belonging to a Lead Farmer in the Conservation Agriculture programme, where minimum tillage and intercropping of maize with agroforestry trees is carried out. 

The visitors were particularly interested in the forest inventories and surveys that we conduct and how this is spearheaded by the community, the mapping of water and forest resources, and community awareness-raising around forest restoration and conservation.

Thank you for helping to make all this possible! 

In the four years since our Katanino project started in 2019, a beautiful and precious area of miombo woodland has been placed under restoration and protection so that it cannot be deforested or degraded by charcoal production or agricultural expansion any more. 5644 ha is being protected and restored in the forest reserve and buffer zone – that’s an estimated 6.1 million trees growing. 

Our survey of households at the beginning of the project found that 54% of families here faced food shortages and consumed forest products (fruits, wild vegetables and mushrooms, tubers and honey), and 38% of households used forest products to raise cash incomes from charcoal, wild fruits, mushrooms or firewood. The forest provided on average 53% of mean cash income, while income from livestock was derived by only 16% of households. 

As restoration and protection of the forest reserve limits community access to resources such as charcoal and forest products, it’s essential that we provide or support alternative, sustainable income sources or food security. In Katanino, we have set up no fewer than seven successful livelihood schemes in which 625 families in the surrounding communities are engaged. 

James K. from Kebamba zone (above) and his family of six are one of them. James was among the five farmers on the pilot pine project that started in 2021, and this Pinus kesiya seedling is coming up nicely. As well as the pine scheme, James takes part in conservation agriculture, chicken and goat production, beekeeping and agroforestry. As if that’s not enough, he’s also the Village Resource Management Committee chairperson for Kebamba zone!

A follow-up survey of households like James’s will help us measure the impact our livelihoods schemes have had on the percentages recorded in the baseline survey. 

Thank you for helping to make all this possible!

Hey there, 

I'm Liz, WeForest's Corporate Partnership Development Manager. I wanted to fill you in about some good news for our Zambian reforestation projects, as well as letting you know about our plans for this year’s Giving Tuesday later in November. 

We were thrilled to see that during COP27, Zambia’s president Hakainde Hichilema and President of the European Union Ursula von der Leyen signed an agreement for a long-term political commitment to conserve, restore, and secure the sustainable use of Zambia's forests. 

Our projects in the miombo belt in southern Africa are creating community forests, supporting farming families and regenerating reserves in these precious forests, on which over 65 million people depend - and we couldn’t do it without you.

This year, WeForest is participating in Giving Tuesday with GlobalGiving. This 24-hour campaign takes place on 29th November, a global day of giving celebrated by nonprofits, corporations, and donors alike! GlobalGiving is offering a $1,200,000 incentive fund to organizations who receive the most funding on the day so we're super excited to see what WeForest can achieve with your help.

Without your kind donations none of this would be possible, so thank you once again from all of us here at WeForest. 

At the same time as being a sustainable and profitable way for smallholder farmers to grow cash crops for food security, nutrition and consistent income, agroforestry systems improve natural resources such as soil and water by the presence of trees, which also sequester carbon as they grow.

There are two agroforestry approaches in Katanino: the Conservation Agriculture Programme, integrating trees with traditional crops, and the Silvopastoral Programme, introducing trees into an animal farming system. 

In the Conservation Agriculture Programme, participating farmers receive agroforestry trees – including Moringa oleifera, Leuceana leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium – to grow among their crops of maize and soya beans. Last year’s farmers have seen an improvement in yields of 40% compared to conventional farming. These Conservation Agriculture farmers are practising minimum tillage during a training session. They also learn crop rotation and planting and pre-harvesting techniques to make sure their agroforestry systems are a success.

Farmers in the Silvopastoral Programme plant agroforestry seedlings on their pasturelands, which will grow as fodder for their goats that the project will provide. These families in the Silvopastoral Programme are gathering grass to make hay. Hay provides forage for goats during the dry period (May-November) when there is no fresh grass for them to eat. Hay is harvested in both Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) plots on farmlands and inside the forest reserve, which significantly reduces the biomass that can help wildfires spread in the forest.

Thank you for helping to make all this possible!

Beauty M., who's taking part in the pilot pine-growing project, is showing how to ring-weed around a pine seedling to protect it from wildfires. Pinus kesiya seedlings like this one are being planted by 5 farmers across 3.75 ha of the project area. Beauty, who supports a family of 6, has been actively involved with WeForest livelihoods for four years and is taking part in five livelihood activities: Conservation Agriculture, chicken production, mushroom production, beekeeping, and the pine project. 

These participants in the goat livelihoods scheme are gathering grass to make hay. Hay provides forage for goats during the dry period (May-November) when there is no fresh grass for them to eat. Hay is harvested in both Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) plots on farmlands and inside the forest reserve, which significantly reduces the biomass that can help wildfires spread in the forest.

Thank you for helping to make all this possible!