MALAWI UPDATE FROM JOE GALLAGHER

Muli bwanji! Greetings from Malawi. It is now a month since I arrived in this area to work for 4 months and I have been asked to write a little bit about what is to be found here. You may well ask what interest the natural world here might hold for Cabragh Wetlands but as I arrived here on a Saturday evening 4 weeks ago and saw the swallows flying low over the ponds collecting flys and watched the egrets picking their way through the muddy flats I realised that many of these birds were en route to Ireland and could well find themselves settling near Thurles for the summer months!


I am here on the the Nankhumba Peninsula which divides the southern end of Lake Malawi. The area here is part of Lake Malawi National Park and is a World Heritage Site This National Park, with its deep clear waters, is home to many hundred species of fish, nearly all endemic. Their importance for the study of evolution is comparable to that of the Galapagos Islands finches. Lake Malawi, lying within the Western Rift Valley, is a unique inland sea 560 km long. The lake's water is permanently stratified, having a warm upper layer overlying a cooler lower layer and is remarkably clear. Because of the these characteristics of the lake, should it be contaminated, the renewal time would be in the order of 1,700 years. The water level fluctuates according to season with a long-term cycle of fluctuation over years. Recent years have seen increases to the highest levels since recording began, probably due to increased rainfall and to forest clearing on the high plateau above. The peninsula has poor rocky soils very susceptible to erosion. In general, the hills are wooded and rise steeply from the lakeshore. Habitat types vary from cliffs and bouldery shores to pebbly and sandy beaches and from wooded hillsides to occasional swamps and lagoons.


The Park was established primarily to protect some of Lake Malawi's very rich aquatic life. The lake contains the largest number of fish species of any lake in the world: over 1,000 from eleven families with perhaps half occurring in the Park area. Over 90% of the fish can only be found in Lake Malawi. The lake contains 30% of all known mbuna or cichlid species of fish of which all but five species of over 400 are endemic to Lake Malawi. More than 70% of mbuna species are not described. They are highly colored, highly territorial and very specialized.
Mammals include chacma baboon and a variety of monkeys, leopard and hippopotamus. The varied birdlife includes black eagle, fish eagle and along the shoreline many waders. The islands, especially Mumbo and Boadzulu, are important nesting sites for several thousand white-breasted cormorant.


Much of the lakeshore is heavily populated. Five shoreline villages, Chembe, Masaka, Mvunguti, Zambo and Chidzale, are included within enclaves in the park. As the soil of the peninsula is poor and crops fail about 50% of the time, local people are dependent on fishing for a livelihood. Some 40,000 people make a living directly from the lake in offshore fisheries, catching 70% of the country's animal protein intake. The Park has been zoned to allow traditional fishing methods aimed at catching migratory fish in limited areas, although in most of the Park the resident fish
are completely protected.



And so this is an introduction to this area of Malawi from which many of our summer visitors will come. Tuanana!













Source: United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre