Malawi has suffered from huge deforestion especially in the last few decades and, as a result, major crises have occurred such as the 2001/2002 food crisis. A major and very important benefit of agroforestry such as with macadamia trees is that it enables the land and soil to recover from deforestation. As soon as a tree is established the benefits include:
- Soil protection and conservation:
- The root structure of trees physically binds soil which prevents soil erosion, especially during Southern African rainy seasons.
- Soil erosion by the wind is also reduced, by the trees sheltering the soil surface.
- The macadamia tree root system is especially good at binding soil because it has a very fibrous surface root system as well as a larger deep root system.
- Carbon dioxide absorption/sequestration:
- Trees absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, CO2.
- As they grow the wood stores carbon from atmosphere and they also benficially produce oxygen, O2, during photosynthesis.
- This process actively reduces carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere and can mitigate carbon damage caused by CO2 emissions which contributes to global warming and climate change.
- Soil surface cooling and water retention:
- Trees inherently provide shade which reduces soil surface temperatures, especially in hot regions such as Malawi where exposed soil receives high levels of direct solar radiation.
- An immediate consequence of the cooler soil is improved water retention of the soil by redicing evaporation.
- This then improves soil quality and with well spaced tree planting enables improved farming of other crops planted amongst trees - known as inter-cropping.
Deforestation recovery