....Continued from the previous post.
The Namitembo Community rests at the very bottom of this gorge, where the escapement of the Zomba Plateau's western slope meets the lowlands of the Shire Valley, the ribbon of the Great Rift valley that cuts and winds its way south through Malawi. 70% of all the men in the Namitembo Communities have one and only one source of income: charcoal. The only source for their charcoal making is the very valley that provides the only source of all the water their very lives, and the lives of all their families and their whole community relies on. The poverty they are trapped within, the daily demands of survival, snares the community into an ever decreasing circle of environmental degradation that threatens and endangers their existence and the ecosystem they depend upon.
So, in many, many ways this scene could be seen as an example of our destruction of the biosphere and its biodiversity. Yet another example of the human species devastating all other species, be they plants or insects or birds or animals: the negative human impact on the Earth, the only home we have.
But...
Where there is humanity let us always act humanely; within our own humanity let us always have hope. Small actions, your actions, can help us all to make a change.
We founded our TREEZ conservation project as our attempt to make a difference where we are, how we can, with what we can, for who we can, for the ecosystem on which we and our communities depend.
The story continues in the next post....