Department of National Parks and Wildlife

The purposes for which protected areas were designated include the following:

• preserve Malawi’s biotic communities and their physical environments;
• protect areas of aesthetic beauty and of special interest;
• preserve populations of rare, endangered, and endemic species of wild plants and animals, including fish;
• conserve catchments and assist in maintenance of water supplies;
• encourage and support studies for the advancement of knowledge and understanding;
• encourage public use and enjoyment of nature;
• provide wildlife stocks to repopulate depleted parts of the country; and
• allow for sustainable use of wildlife resources in order to contribute to the national economy, particularly to enhance rural development.

Mandate

To conserve and manage wildlife both in protected areas and natural habitats outside protected areas and regulate their use.

Vision

To become a lead, vibrant and progressive wildlife conservation agency in Malawi.

 Mission

To conserve and manage protected areas and wildlife for present and future Malawians through enforcement of wildlife legislation, adaptive management, effective monitoring and governance with full involvement of all stakeholders

Objectives

1. To conserve, manage and curtail illegal use of wildlife in and outside national parks, wildlife reserves and nature sanctuaries.
2. To develop and create opportunities for ecotourism and wildlife conservation led business investment that is ecologically sustainable, economically viable and socially acceptable.
3. To gain public support through increased awareness and stakeholder collaboration and participation in wildlife conservation and management.
4. To promote scientific wildlife research and monitoring as a basis for conservation management decision making.
5. To manage wildlife resources productively and within ecologically accepted limits, so as to generate maximum but sustainable economic returns.

The Department’s functions are directly related to the purposes of the Act which reflects its responsibility to the people of Malawi for the implementation and enforcement of the Act and regulatory provisions. The core functions and general purposes are executed under the following portfolios:

Organizational Administration

To administer and manage the Department, its staff, its finances and all its functions and operations, so as to achieve its objectives

Wildlife Management and Utilization

The purpose is to protect and manage national parks, wildlife reserves and nature sanctuaries in which representative communities of wild plants and animals are conserved. This is primarily a law enforcement function, but it includes responsibility for all wildlife management activities in protected areas. It also includes responsibility for the administration and control of all wildlife ranch/game farming, hunting, problem animal control and ecotourism development. With continued destruction of natural habitats of wild animals due to human population increase and expansion of agricultural activities in the surrounding areas of protected areas, human-wildlife conflicts have become more frequent and severe over recent decades, and therefore, the unit also has the responsibility of human-wildlife control undertaken through various strategies such as solar powered electric fences around protected areas and deployment of hunters.

The Sub Directorate has also new sections:

• Border Control Unit and the Dog Unit. Available at key entry and exit points of:
  1. Chileka and Kamuzu International Airports
  2. Mchinji Border
  3. Mwanza Border
  4. Songwe Border

• Prosecution Unit

• Wildlife Crime Investigations Unit

Community Wildlife Extension and Public Environmental Conservation Education

Community Wildlife Extension is important in promoting wildlife conservation and management by involving local communities living close to protected areas as partners and beneficiaries in the ownership and management of wildlife through collaborative management. There are community institutional structures around protected areas to facilitate collaborative management. The DNPW through an authorized Wildlife Fund is implementing a revenue sharing scheme where the Communities get 25% of the total revenue generated at park level. The scheme started being implemented in Nyika/Vwaza, and has rolled out to other protected areas such as Lake Malawi National Park and Lengwe National Park. The community portion of the money is used for various community development activities identified by communities themselves. Furthermore, there are various community livelihood interventions that are being under taken such as bee-keeping and livestock pass on programs. On the other hand, Public Environmental Conservation Education enhances the general public awareness and understanding of the importance of wildlife conservation and management, and assists in gaining public support. This is achieved by providing opportunities and facilities within Protected Areas for environmental conservation education, and also undertaking awareness campaigns and outreach programs.

Wildlife Research and Development

The objective is to conduct wildlife ecological research and monitoring by generating and providing science-based information for the effective conservation and management of wildlife. Wildlife conservation and management activities have to be based on sound knowledge of the nature and interactions of wildlife resources in order to maintain an ecological balance within respective biotic communities as well as the potential for their sustainable use. There are a number of ecological monitoring programs being undertaken in protected areas such as animal population surveys to provide information on the status; law enforcement patrol analysis; and monitoring of specific research activities for each protected area as outlined in the management plans such as elephant monitoring, vegetation studies, birds, carnivores, invasive species, and fire plots among others.

The Section also facilitates the development and review of documents such as the Wildlife Policy, Protected Area Management Plans, Strategic plan, Rhino management plan, Lion management plan and other documents.

International and National Inter Agency Cooperation

The DNPW functions as an official management and scientific authority responsible for implementing wildlife related international agreements, and also the Government’s contact point with local and foreign agencies, NGOs, Universities e.t.c that have similar or related conservation objectives. In particular,

• DNPW is the Management Authority and Scientific Authority for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES);
• Administrative Authority for the Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance), an intergovernmental treaty whose mission is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and international cooperation towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world. DNPW is also a major stakeholder in the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the IUCN-World Conservation Union.
• In September 2019, Malawi became a Party to the Convention of Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), and the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA)

Malawi is a signatory to the World Heritage Convention with the designation of Lake Malawi National Park in 1984 as a World Heritage Site in recognition of the high species diversity and biological importance of cichlids (Mbuna).

Regionally Malawi is a signatory to the SADC Protocol on wildlife conservation and law enforcement established to enhance common approaches to conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources.

Nationally, in March 2014 an Inter-Agency Committee on Combating Wildlife Crime (IACCWC) was established in response to the rapidly escalating wildlife crime which urgently required improved inter-agency collaboration and communication, and in recognition of the increasing scale and complexity of wildlife crime. IACCWC comprises representatives from all the relevant enforcement, judicial and prosecution agencies in the country.

The DNPW Directorate is located in Matamando House, off Convention Drive opposite City Centre Civic Offices in the Capital City of Lilongwe, Malawi.

The Director

Department of National Parks and Wildlife

P.O. Box 30131

Lilongwe 3

 

Phone number (s): 0999 915 411/0888 915 411

Email address: dpw@malawi.net