Lake Malawi Conservancy

Lake Malawi Conservancy, Malawi

The Lake Malawi Conservancy is proposed as a flagship Malawi pilot for Rewilding Africa CIC’s National Park Conservancy (NPC) model – an approach designed to create thriving conservation and sustainable development landscapes around Africa’s national parks and protected areas.

Centred on the Lake Malawi National Park and the wider lake, island and surrounding community landscape, the Conservancy seeks to connect biodiversity conservation, community livelihoods, sustainable tourism, enterprise development, investment and landscape restoration within a coordinated community led conservation destination framework.

The Conservancy would complement, rather than replace, the existing management and protection of Lake Malawi National Park, creating a wider platform through which communities, conservation organisations, tourism operators, private landowners and investors can participate in and benefit from a sustainable conservation economy.

The opportunity

Lake Malawi is one of Africa’s great freshwater ecosystems and an internationally significant centre of biodiversity. Its surrounding communities depend heavily on the lake and its natural resources for their livelihoods, while tourism provides an important opportunity for sustainable economic development.

The Lake Malawi Conservancy provides an opportunity to develop a landscape-scale destination proposition that links the protection of the national park and entire lake ecosystem with the economic aspirations of surrounding communities.

Appropriately planned opportunities could include community-based tourism, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, conservation enterprises, cultural experiences, hospitality, regenerative agriculture, water and ecosystem protection, conservation concessions and other nature-positive businesses.

The underlying principle is:

A protected area should become the anchor of a wider conservation economy in which nature, communities and responsible enterprise can thrive together.

Rewilding Africa CIC’s role

Rewilding Africa CIC proposes to work collaboratively with the relevant Government of Malawi authorities, Department of National Parks and Wildlife, local communities, traditional leaders, conservation organisations, tourism stakeholders, private-sector partners, development organisations and responsible investors to explore and develop the Lake Malawi Conservancy as a Malawi country pilot for the National Park Conservancy model.

The initial programme would focus on Phase 1 – Destination Strategy, Branding and Market Activation, establishing the shared vision, destination identity, stakeholder platform, market proposition, investment narrative and roadmap for the Conservancy.

Subject to stakeholder support and funding, a subsequent Phase 2 Conservancy Planning and Development Programme could address detailed natural-resource assessment, comprehensive community planning, land-use mapping and zoning, governance structures, conservation and tourism concessions, community enterprise development, landscape and ecosystem restoration and long-term conservancy management.

A thriving freshwater conservation economy

The Lake Malawi Conservancy has the potential to create a globally recognised model where:

• Lake Malawi’s exceptional biodiversity is protected and restored

• Communities benefit directly from conservation and sustainable tourism

• Sustainable fisheries and natural-resource management are strengthened

• Tourism creates wider local employment and enterprise opportunities

• Community enterprises gain access to domestic and international markets

• Responsible investment is attracted to conservation-compatible opportunities

• Natural habitats, water resources and ecological connectivity are protected

• Regenerative and sustainable land uses are encouraged

• Conservation becomes an increasingly valuable economic water and land-use choice

The opportunity is to build upon Lake Malawi’s international tourism and conservation profile and develop a unified community led conservation destination proposition connecting the national park with the wider lake and surrounding communities.

Phase 1 ambition

The first phase will establish the Lake Malawi Conservancy destination proposition, bringing key stakeholders, conservation, community, tourism and investment interests together around a common vision.

The objective is to create a compelling and investable destination platform capable of attracting conservation finance, responsible tourism investment, philanthropic and development funding, social impact investment and private-sector participation.

The Lake Malawi Conservancy destination brand has the potential to become an important demonstration of how a protected freshwater ecosystem can act as the anchor for a much wider community-led conservation and sustainable development landscape.

With Lake Malawi at its heart, the conservancy has the potential to connect terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems while creating a globally distinctive destination based upon conservation, community livelihoods, culture, adventure and sustainable tourism.

Working hand in hand with local implementation partners, Rewilding Africa CIC intends making this much needed National Park Conservancy a reality, before population pressure around the lake destroys its last remaining biodiversity forever.

Lake Malawi Conservancy – protecting Africa’s great freshwater ecosystem, empowering lakeside communities and creating a thriving conservation economy around Lake Malawi.