Exploring forest-related coping strategies for alleviating the HIV/AIDS burden on rural Malawian households

摘要

Rural households are being forced to cope and adapt to changing availability of important forest resources while also dealing with the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. The purpose of this study was to explore the range of local forest-related coping strategies being used, and innovations that local people would like to try, to alleviate the HIV/AIDS burden on rural households in Malawi. The data were collected from sixty semi-structured interviews with local respondents. The results confirm the use of a range of labour-related coping strategies associated with one of four important forest resources (firewood, water, medicinal plants, thatch grass), along with other broad economic, social, and nutritional coping strategies. Interventions that policymakers and development practitioners could provide in order to foster the most commonly used coping strategies include: provisioning households with required forest resources; investing in agroforestry projects and the domestication of important medicinal plants, wild vegetables and indigenous fruits; and strengthening indigenous responses such as savings clubs and labour and draught power clubs.