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The Plight of the Mount Mulanje Cedar Widdringtonia Whytei in Malawi

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The Plight of the Mount Mulanje Cedar Widdringtonia Whytei in Malawi Oryx Vol 41 No 1 January 2007 Saving the Island in the Sky: the plight of the Mount Mulanje cedar Widdringtonia whytei in Malawi Julian Bayliss, Steve Makungwa, Joy Hecht, David Nangoma and Carl Bruessow Abstract The Endangered Mulanje cedar Widdringtonia which represents a loss of 616.7 ha over the previous whytei, endemic to the Mount Mulanje massif in Malawi, 15 years. Of the recorded trees 32.27% (37,242 m3) were has undergone a drastic decline due to increased fire dead cedars. Therefore, under current Department of incidence and illegal logging. Valued for its fine timber, Forestry harvest licensing, there remains in theory attractive fragrance, and pesticide-resistant sap, the tree sufficient dead cedar to last .30 years. At this stage it has been regarded as highly desirable since its discovery is imperative that cedar nurseries are established and in the late 19th century. Because of its steep slopes and saplings planted out across the mountain on an annual isolated high altitude plateau, Mount Mulanje is also a basis, small cedar clusters are protected to facilitate refuge for a number of other endemic plant species. The regeneration, and a strict monitoring programme is first assessment of the Mulanje cedar since 1994 was followed to prevent the cutting of live cedar. commissioned by the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust to ascertain the species’ current extent and status. Keywords Fire, Malawi, Mount Mulanje, Mulanje This study identified an area of 845.3 ha of Mulanje cedar, cedar, Widdringtonia whytei. Introduction late President Dr Hastings Banda, and has come to symbolize the delicate balance that faces the Mount The Mulanje cedar was first noted by the Scottish Mulanje ecosystem. W. whytei is categorized as missionary Robert Cleland when he climbed onto the Endangered on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2006). In Mulanje plateau in 1888 and ‘discovered himself in 2000 the Mulanje Mountain Forest Reserve was desig- another world … with here and there clumps of a tree nated for inclusion in the World Network of Biosphere unknown beyond the mountain’ (Jenkins, 1986). This Reserves as part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere unknown tree was later to become the Mulanje cedar Programme. An application has since been submitted to Widdringtonia whytei. The Mulanje cedar was first UNESCO for World Heritage Site status. Such approval described by Whyte (1893) and later named by Rendle will be crucial to the preservation of the mountain’s (1894). Commercial exploitation began in 1898 and ecosystem, obliging the UN to undertake legal action if continued until 1955, with large areas of forest cleared. the Mulanje ecosystem is threatened. The area was gazetted as Mulanje Mountain Forest The genus Widdringtonia contains several species from Reserve in 1927 by the British authorities (when Malawi southern Africa, notably W. cedarbergensis (Cederberg was known as the Protectorate of Nyasaland), probably mountains, South Africa), W. schwarzii (Baviaans Kloof more to manage and exploit the plateau’s resources than Mountains, South Africa), and W. cupressoides (syn. W. to conserve them (Chapman, 1994). The Mulanje cedar nodiflora, found throughout southern Africa; Marsh, was declared the national tree of Malawi in 1984 by the 1966). W. whytei was originally thought to be synon- ymous with W. nodiflora, which in turn was thought to be synonymous with W. cupressoides (Marsh, 1966), Julian Bayliss* (Corresponding author) Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 although this is disputed (Pauw & Linder, 1997). On Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460-1090, USA. E-mail [email protected] Mount Mulanje both the W. nodiflora (multi-stemmed, Steve Makungwa Department of Forestry and Horticulture, Bunda College, narrow crowned tree) and W. whytei (taller, wide University of Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi. crowned) forms exist. Joy Hecht Consultant on Environmental Economics and Policy to the Mulanje There are several threats to the Mount Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust. ecosystem. The most serious of these are fire, fuelwood David Nangoma and Carl Bruessow Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust, collection, illegal logging, unsustainable hunting, inva- PO Box 139, Mulanje, Malawi. sive species, and the potential threat of bauxite extrac- *Also at: Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust, P.O. Box 139, Mulanje, Malawi. tion (Bayliss, 2005; Hecht, 2006). Some fires are natural Received 21 November 2005. Revision requested 17 January 2006. but it is believed that the majority are human made Accepted 24 April 2006. (Chapman, 1995). Hunting fires (to flush out game) are 64 ß 2007 FFI, Oryx, 41(1), 64–69 doi:10.1017/S0030605307001548 Printed in the United Kingdom Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.40.219, on 24 Sep 2021 at 19:53:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605307001548 The Island in the Sky 65 widespread, although technically no hunting is allowed in southern Malawi and is the highest mountain in inside the Forest Reserve boundaries. Crop-burning fires tropical southern Africa, rising to .3,000 m and covering are also a common occurrence and often spread out of an area of c. 650 km2 (Fig. 1). Known as a centre of control onto the mountain from outside the Reserve biodiversity, the mountain contains high levels of boundaries. Illegal logging of Mulanje cedar is also endemism, with 70 out of 1,330 vascular plant species significant in areas not normally visited by Department endemic (Strugnell, 2002). The south-east of the plateau is of Forestry or Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust wetter than the north-west because of the prevailing officials (J. Bayliss, pers. obs.). Mozambique coastal trade winds, creating a range of The spread of invasive species on the plateau is well biomes within the mountain ecosystem. The areas documented. The most serious is the Mexican pine Pinus surrounding the mountain are a mosaic of habitat and patula, originally planted as a nursery crop for the Mulanje land use types, with tea estates predominant on the cedar and eventually as a plantation crop instead of the southern and eastern boundaries of the Forest Reserve. Mulanje cedar (Chapman, 1995). It has completely taken The mountain is important for its water catchment value, over certain areas of the mountain to the detriment of all and gives rise to nine major rivers. On average 2,859 mm other native species. Another threat is the aphid Cinara of rain is recorded in the south-east of the plateau at cupressi, originally found on the Mexican cypress Cupressus Lichenya and 2,001 mm on Esperanza Tea Estate at the lusitanica planted c. 80 years ago on Mount Mulanje for base of the mountain (R. Illingworth, pers. comm.). timber (Chapman et al., 1991). The aphid attacked the Mulanje cedar and was the cause of death of many trees Methods (Chilima, 1989; Sakai, 1989b). A parasitic wasp Pausia bicolor was released as a biological control for C. cupressi in Areas of potential cedar clusters were identified using 1991 (Chilima & Meke, 1993) but the effectiveness of the the Mulanje Mountain 1:40,000 topographic map programme is unknown and awaits investigation. (Department of Surveys, Malawi, 1996), combined with About 30 million tons of bauxite exist on Mount our knowledge of the plateau. Possible cluster boundaries Mulanje, mainly on the Lichenya and Chambe plateaus were delineated in consultation with Mulanje Mountain that cover approximately one third of the mountain Conservation Trust and Department of Forestry staff. We (Hecht, 2006). If mining does take place it will found this delineation agreed with the results of an completely destroy the Mulanje cedar forests in these independent study (Bouvier, 2006) in which cedar regions. In December 2005 the Malawi government clusters were identified using remote sensing. Predic- announced the discussion of open-cast mining with the tive models were then used to calculate standing and South African mining company Gondo Resources merchantable volumes of both living and dead cedar. Management. Currently they are at the prospecting stage although it is thought that mining will start in 2011 Mapping following an acceptable Environmental Impact Each cluster was stratified based on terrain and in each Assessment on behalf of the mining company. It is stratum systematic sampling was used to locate plots. estimated that the mining will last for at least 25 years An interior baseline was established 100 m from the (R. Illingworth, pers. comm.). edge of a cluster, to account for edge effects. From this This study presents the results of the most recent point a 500 metre grid was established towards the status and distribution survey of the Mulanje cedar. The cluster centre. Circular plots, with a variable radius of last survey was in 1994 (Lawrence et al., 1994), during 25–60 m to ensure a minimum of 20 trees per plot, were which time Malawi underwent a period of political located every 500 m along each grid line. This gave a change following the 30-year rule of President Banda. total of 33 plots and a sampling intensity of 3.9% of the This time of change had repercussions for the natural total identified cedar coverage of 845.3 ha. The geo- environment and there was a decline in the manage- graphic coordinates of each plot centre and of cluster ment and protection of the Mulanje cedar. This study boundaries were recorded with a global positioning assesses the current status of the Mulanje cedar, system (GPS) to an error of ¡ 5–10 m. Boundary compares this with the results from previous studies, coordinates were used in the geographical information describes current threats to the tree, and makes system ArcView GIS v. 9 (ESRI, Redlands, USA) to conservation recommendations. represent cedar clusters as polygons. Study area Sampling Known locally as chilumba mu mlengalenga (Island in the The number of plots in each stratum varied depending on Sky) Mount Mulanje rises spectacularly above the plains the size of the cedar cluster.
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