Malawi’s President, Mr. Lazarus Chakwera, launched on Friday the Malawi Carbon Markets Initiative, highlighting the country’s huge potential for carbon trading due to its extensive forest reserves and conservation parks, local daily Nyasa Times reported.
The remarks were made at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in the capital Lilongwe during the launch of the initiative.
With a total area of 45,745 mi², Malawi boasts more than one million hectares of designated forest reserves, including both exotic and indigenous trees, and another one million hectares of land under wildlife conservation parks and reserves.
These can be used to generate carbon credits corresponding to nearly 20 million metric tons of carbon a year, which would bring an annual income of $600 million to the African nation, the President was quoted as saying.
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The Malawi Carbon Market Initiative will be jointly managed by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and the Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change.
“From this launch, I expect that they will make a concerted effort to attract investments that will sustain and leverage the initiatives I started when I launched the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative with President Ruto of Kenya in Sharm-El-Sheikh and when I cast Malawi’s vision for carbon markets at the Sixth African Business Forum in Addis Ababa,” President Chakwera said.
According to the President, having experienced firsthand the devastating effects of degrading the environment, Malawi has every reason to pursue a green economy.
A green economy is also in line with the Malawi 2063 Vision (MW2063), launched in 2020, which reflects the nation’s commitment to environmental sustainability and ecosystem conservation, among other relevant topics, he underlined.
The goal of MW2063 is to ensure food security, job creation, and wealth creation, while preserving Malawi’s natural resources.
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