Conservation is Hopeless

I'm here in Malawi working on a natural resources program and today I came to the conclusion that in this environment, conservation is hopeless.

The harvest in Malawi just took place over the past few weeks and it was poor. Some crops failed completely because there were insufficient rains. In other places, the two week dry spell in the middle of the season at a key point meant that the crop was stunted. Part of the problem is that the staple crop is maize which is not adapted to drought conditions. Believe it or not, but maize was only introduced to Malawi about 80 years ago. It is seen as more modern and so has almost completely replaced the more drought resistant millet, sorghum and cassava in the local diet - even though that means starvation every few years when there is a drought.

There are reportedly already 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have already been declared in food crises. Malawi is not one of them, so there is concern that by the time people realize the scale of the problem, there will be no foreign aid left to feed the country.

In this environment how can we encourage people to invest in the future. These are people who literally do not know how they are going to get through the next year - the real crisis will come next year when the grain stores have been emptied and next year's crop of maize is growing in the ground while the people starve. In this environment how can we convince anyone to leave trees in the forest, fish in the lakes and medicinal vines growing on the river banks? How can we convince them to preserve the natural resources for a tomorrow that they and their children may very well not see? How do we convince them not to engage in risky behavior (transactional sex) if it will feed their children and keep them alive? In this environment, food today is without doubt worth more than the risk of getting some disease that might kill you in 10 years.

Life expectancy in Malawi is 34 years.