Last weekend I did a bird count in the Ndindi marches. Close to the village Ndamera, in the southern most tip of Malawi, on the border of Mozambique. The Ndindi marches cover an area of more then 40 km long and several km width. The data will be used by Wetland International, but above all it was just a very pleasant morning in a beautiful area. In a traditional canoe, watching and counting birds, visiting fisherman villages; the poorest families of Malawi. Villages without clean drinking water, latrines or access to schools or hospital. And those people were welcoming us by giving us sweet potatoes. Just because we were there.

The marches are hard to reach. To get there I had to take a bicycle taxi for 30 km, stay the night at a friends place to be able to go to the marches early morning. The next day traveling back again by bicycle taxi, with a detour this time, experienced a flat tire on the way back and saw a Malawian cycle repairer at work. His wife would not let me go without giving me bananas and ground nuts. Why? Just because I was there.

And the results? A total of 360 birds, 42 different species in 3 hours time. I was happy! (and I had a sore butt from the taxi's....)

The 12th and 13th of October I participated in an annual game and bird count in Lengwe National Park in the South of Malawi. With the game counts the National Parks are able to keep trends of the animal stock. There are two different kinds of game counts; the transect count and waterhole count. During a transect count the participant walk in groups transects through the park and count the animals they encounter. These type of game count is also very effective to catch poachers in the parks. During a waterhole count the participants stay in hides at the waterholes in a park and count all drinking animals. This type of count is more reliable to make an estimation of the stock. Most antelopes drink only once every 1 or 2 days. By counting only the drinking animals you make sure that every animal is only counted once and that you count most animals in the park. 

The count in Lengwe NP was a waterhole count. The target animal to focus on was the almost endemic nyala.  How many are there in the park, how many injured, adult males and females, calves, male young and female young.  Aside the nyala the goal was to count all drinking warthogs, buffalo's, impala's, bushbucks and kudu's. The count was done in shifts of 3 hours. 3 hours in a hide, 3 hours to travel back, get some rest and travel to the next hide and then another 3 hour shift. In temperatures of 35 degrees and higher.

Aside from the game count I also made a start for a bird count. To update the parks birding list and check if some of the known residents were still there. This meant for me that when I was not needed in the hide I was wondering around in the surroundings; birding and checking nests. And in between the shifts I spend my time birding and making lists. Following a collection of pictures of the game and bird count.

Being an ecologist, working on a climate adaption program in Africa, isn’t that a bit out of my league? Well, ecology and climate in fact have a lot to do with each other. Especially in countries like Malawi. Contrary to what many people think, I am not here to solve the problem of global climate change. Or even the consequences of global climate change in Malawi. Malawi has a more urgent problem than global climate change: land degradation in combination with the natural extreme climate. 
 
Malawians have been cutting down forest for agricultural purposes, collecting firewood, and burning charcoal and for timber for decades, if not centuries. As a result the country that once was covered with tropical forest and a few patches of savanna, with a huge diversity in wildlife like antelopes, elephants and small mammals, and that once was a paradise for birds, became a dry, hot and cultivated country. Malawi is turning into a desert. Global climate
change may contribute to the problem. The  increase in temperatures in South-East Africa does not make it easier for the Malawians to cope with their problems. But the local climate is changing largely as a consequence of land degradation due to their own land use.
 
Now what has an ecologist to do with that? The WATERS-project is trying to tackle the problem using the Ecosystem Service Approach (ESAp). Those following my blogs have probably heard me use this term before. But what is it exactly?
 
ESAp is based on the principle that a healthy ecosystem offers all kinds of services needed for climate regulation, sequestration, purification, food, pharmaceuticals, religious or cultural services etc. In Malawi’s case,  a healthy, self-sustaining ecosystem will also buffer extreme weather conditions and regulate the local climate. Not only because the climate problems in Malawi started by destroying the ecosystem (deforestation) in the first place, but nature itself has many ways of solving environmental problems. Tree roots hold soil and prevent soil erosion, reeds and grasses help stabilize riverbanks, trees and shrubs keep the soil moist and prevent the drying out of the soil, vegetation slows down running water, and so on. 

The government in Malawi consists of different offices, each concerning its own business. For example a forestry office, environmental office, agricultural office, water office, irrigation office, wildlife and parks office, and so on. These offices barely cooperate with each other and stick to their own specialty. One of the goals of ESAp is to teach officers, NGO’s and locals to work across boundaries. ESAp makes it possible to look at challenges beyond the
office’s specific expertise, and to see connections between water, trees and agriculture. Which seems pretty obvious, but in practice is quite hard to establish. Because it not only concerns connections between ‘green’ offices, but
also with health, infrastructure, poverty, HIV, and all the other offices. ESAp helps office workers to understand the source of a problem, even if that is in a completely different area of expertise than theirs. It shows the importance of
Malawian nature. For example, people who are not educated and live in poverty are eager to cut down more trees and to have more agricultural land so that they have more crops en wood to sell. It’s a downward spiral in which poverty contributes to deforestation, which leads to degradation of land, which leads to poverty, etc.. The infrastructure gets destroyed by flash floods, caused by the cutting down of trees. This hampers local people to reach hospitals, markets or schools. Diseases, illiteracy, HIV and bad infrastructure contribute to poverty and vice versa. Or the summarize it; Poverty and development is extremely complex to solve.
 
ESAp is a tool  for solving cross-boundary problems and for stimulating cooperation. It perceives land as an ecosystem, holistically, instead of just trees, just a river, just a village. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that restoring nature in Malawi will solve all the country’s problems. It is way more complicated than that. But it
could contribute to the solution of some of the major problems Malawi is struggling with.
 
Because deforestation is one of the biggest issues in Malawi, I’m focusing mainly on teaching local communities and officers about the importance of managing and conserving forests, also with regard to other issues like infrastructure, food security and health. I tell them that managing a forest is more than just planting trees. To have a healthy forest you need a healthy catchment area, wildlife, shrubs and other plants. You need a stable ecosystem. And it is not necessary for the people to leave the area. With the right use and management they can live with and in the forest. When they make use of conservation agriculture, and agro-forestry in particular, they can use their land more efficiently and more sustainably.  They can use the forest for bee-keeping and the collection of firewood, medicines and wild fruits. But before that, we first need to restore Malawians’ nature. And that is a huge challenge. 

After 8 months of living and birding in Malawi I do have a few thousand bird pictures. Don't ask how many exactly, I'm not going to count them. To give you a impression of the birds flying around here I decided to post a few of
them. Some of these photos are taking in the national parks, but a lot of them just around my house or on the road. I'm no photographer, not all pictures are top-quality. And a real photographer could probably do a way better job. Bit still I like watching birds and I like taking pictures of them. Sometimes with a little bit more success then other times. In this blog I posted a few of these photographs. Some because I like the photo, but some photo's just because I like the bird. But first a short story on my experiences in birdwatching in Malawi.

Birding in Malawi is a quite different  experience than back home in the Netherlands. It is a bit more challenging and  way more exciting. During birdwatching in the National Parks you also have to keep an eye out for elephants, buffalos, hippo’s, crocodiles and smaller animals like snakes, especially pofadder. The most likely time to encounter those are early morning and early evening. The same time you want to go out and watch birds. And believe me looking for a bird and at the same time keeping an eye on your surroundings to be sure you don’t walk into an elephant or hippo is quite distracting. In Nkhotakota National Park I had such an encounter. I was standing
on a low platform over an almost dry river. In the bush next to the platform was a small bird, which I did not recognize. But, as small birds often do, it just would not sit still so I could get a proper look at it. While trying to get the bird properly into my view through my binoculars I forgot looking around me. And, to be honest, standing on a
platform I did feel quite safe, until I heard some rustling of leaves next to me. But, being occupied by the bird, I did not respond immediately. But the noise was not stopping, it came closer. The moment I looked aside I saw a full grown angry elephant, flapping ears and slapping trunk and all, coming at me! And he was just 25 meters away from me! My first thought? Stupid elephant, my bird!!! But after a very short moment of thinking I did
decided to get out of the platform and find refugee behind the bushes on safe ground. I never found the bird again. Which still makes me cranky, because I think it was a lovely bird and I never saw it again.
   
Not only animals make birding a bit challenging. Also the Malawian people can seriously drive me crazy. Here is a
‘normal’ encounter with a Malawian when I go birding in my home town Nsanje. I’m standing at a bush, trying to find the bird in the leaves. A man comes to me. 
“hello Madam, How are you, madam?” 
“Fine, how are you?” 
“Fine madam, thank you madam”
“What are you doing madam?”
“I’m watching birds”
“Why madam”
“Because I like birds”
“Why do you like birds madam”
“I think they are beautiful animals, I  like watching them”
“Oh. What is that madam?”
“A binocular”
“Oh. You make pictures with that madam?”
“No I can see the birds more close”
“Oh. Where are you from madam”
“To be honest I don’t want to have a conversation right know, I really want to look at the birds.”
“I’m sorry madam, I didn’t want to offend you madam, really sorry madam, forgive me madam”
“It’s oke, have a nice day”
“Oke madam, but I know good place with birds madam, you come with me madam”
“No, I’m fine here”
“No madam, come with me madam”
“Could you please leave” (getting annoyed)
“I’m sorry madam, I didn’t want to offend you madam, really sorry madam, forgive me madam”
  “….”
“Oke, I’m leaving now madam”
“…..”
“Can I have your phone number madam”
“No”
“Why not, madam?”
“Just go”
“Oh. Where do you live  madam”
“….”
“Are you married madam?”
“Just go away now please!!!!”
“Oke… Good day madam”
“I’m looking for a wife madam….”
“Go away now!!!!”
By now, the bird decided to go somewhere else.

10 minutes later I thought to find peace again, but 1 kid saw me walking and started yelling: “Hello, good morning, 
how-are-you!!!!” I tried to keep it off with just a simple wave (ignoring only makes it worse). But other kids heard it and come running at me. Yelling: “Give me my money/bottle/sweet!” By now I give up and go home. Followed by a herd of noisy kids. Good morning. Nice morning of bird watching….
 
Not every time I go out it is this way.  Sometimes  the people do leave me alone and I can relatively walk around in peace. To be honest, by now I do know the places where I can be, without being bothered too much. And you would think that after 8 months people would get used to me walking around. But seriously, every time they act like it’s the first time they see me. Sometimes it is funny. You have great conversations or encounter a Malawian who is truly interested in what you are doing. But at other times you just want to be left at peace and Malawian people really do not understand that. Things like privacy and alone time they are not familiar with it. Well, this is Malawi and after all, the birds in Malawi are beautiful and there are quite a lot of them! And I have the pictures to proof that. 

Last week I had a little change in profession. Instead of advisor and coordinator I became a teacher. Together with colleagues Monti from Forestry and Zidane from Wildlife and Parks we went to four secondary school to give lessons about environmental issues. I was lecturing about the effects of deforestation and wrong land-use in Malawi. The kids (ages 13-17) were all members of environmental or wildlife clubs and came to the lessons voluntary. In two days we gave four lectures on four schools. We reached a total of 132 students. And we are not planning to quite after these two days. More will follow!