The challenge of Climate Change

Since we first launched our tree planting programme we have encouraged the mitigation of carbon footprints. In simple terms it is accepting that our every day activities whether travelling or heating our homes or importing products we buy from abroad or the food we eat has a carbon impact. That carbon contributes to climate change and the impacts of that change are different.

Tree growth in Malawi is fast! This woodlot was planted four years ago as part of Mbedza’s environment programme.

In Malawi those impacts are very real and are contributing to people’s poverty. We see this especially in the unreliability of rain that is meant to arrive in the ‘rainy season’ when seed is planted. We see this in the increase and intensity of cyclone activity such as Cyclone Freddy in 2023 that in our catchment area destroyed people’s crops just as they were ready to harvest. The most recent Cyclone Chido in December 2024 barely made the news but brought to Malawi winds of 124 miles per hour damaging many homes and other properties. This was the cyclone that devastated Mayotte.

2025 began with a great encouragement. We were approached by someone who said ‘in 2024 I travelled a lot by plane, how can I mitigate the impact of the carbon that I have created?’ We have the tools to do the calculations - they had created over 17 tonnes of carbon through their flights in 2024. As a result they are now planting 300 trees to mitigate the impact quickly.

For myself as UK Mbedza Director that question hit me several years ago in 2016 when we had witnessed an event at Ntiya village. The village was celebrating the arrival of Esperanza Stoves and they wanted us to not only see those stoves but also other initiatives they had started, to protect their environment from climate change.

Photo - Ntiya village celebrate in 2016

I was asked by a radio presenter what I thought and I said ‘I am from a country that has contributed historically a significant amount to climate change. I personally do this every day - in fact my carbon footprint in 2016 was around 15 tonnes of carbon. I am a cause of climate change but so far have done nothing about it. Your community is suffering the impacts and yet the average carbon footprint of a Malawian is 0.1 tonnes of carbon per year.’

In response I decided firstly as an individual to calculate my whole life’s carbon footprint and work out over a period of time how many trees I would need to be planted to mitigate that impact. Secondly, we decided as Mbedza that starting environment projects in Malawi was no longer optional, it was now essential and in 2017 we started our first tree planting projects.

Tree planting in Malawi is a very positive way of mitigating carbon because tree growth is fast. However, our main motivation for doing this is to reduce poverty and trees have many benefits. We are trying to help Malawians adapt to climate change by increasing wood supply, providing trees that enrich the soil, providing shade and boundaries as well as nutritional benefits through fruit. Photo -Mbewe village - the project cycle starts again. These saplings were planted in 2024 and are now ready to be planted into the community.

Since 2023 we have also started garden projects - we are in the very early stages but Malawians need to be able to grow more sustainably and in a way that enriches the soil. We have started this process and our partners at Sustainable Global Gardens (SGG) have been fantastic. The photo shows Paul Keeley from SGG and our Environment Project Manager Richard Malili training the community in sustainable gardens.

Our partners at SpaComms are also an inspiration to us. They aim ‘To take actionable steps as a sustainable business, we are committed to offsetting our carbon footprint through annual donations to Mbedza Malawi – a non-profit organisation working towards the prevention and relief of poverty in Malawi.’ SpaComms have planted thousands of trees in Malawi through Mbedza’s programmes. (https://spacomms.com/esg/).

Our question at Mbedza is ‘would you consider mitigating any part of your carbon footprint?’ It could be just one aspect such as flights. Or, you could calculate your annual carbon footprint and start there. Every tree makes a difference - even 1. We have the tools to help.

If you want to know more you can use the contact form on this website to get in touch. https://mbedza.org/contact