Protected areas in Malawi are not spared of encroachment. As a result, there have been a lot of illegal activities that have been recorded from protected areas of the countries. Some of the serious detrimental activities include; poaching of critically endangered species of wildlife and flora for local and international trade and food, deforestation and smuggling of species and various parts (teeth, ivory, skins, bones, tree barks, roots, dry leaves) of species to foreign countries for sale. Surveys undertaken by the departments of Immigration and Police resulted in the arrests of over 25 foreign and 32 Malawian nationals because they were found in possession of live specimens and body parts of some critically endangered and endemic species of wildlife and flora that were smuggled from different protected areas of Malawi (Immigration & Police Bi-Annual Report, 2009). The arrests were made at Lilongwe International Airport, Chileka Airport, and at Songwe & Mwanza Border Posts. Further, records obtained from the two departments showed that some of wildlife and their parts that were confiscated from smugglers are those species classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered (CR) while others Endangered (E) and at the same time are also under CITES I and II (i.e. species of wildlife and flora that are not supposed to be traded because are at the verge of becoming extinct). The departments of national parks and wildlife and forestry are failing to contain the unwelcome situation because of inadequate personnel and resources.

As such, they cannot sufficiently address the problems. It is therefore, against this background that CWM intends to address the problems by building complementary community structures which will be helping these departments to effectively patrol and monitor protected areas selected and confiscate any wildlife or its part from smugglers and take the law breakers to relevant authorities (police, court, departments of national parks and forestry) for prosecution. The community structures will significantly help address the problems thereby contributing to nature conservation in protected areas of the country. The objectives of the application are:

(a) To build community wildlife and flora policing, monitoring and law enforcement Task Forces;

(b) To promote awareness programmes for National Parks & Wildlife and Forestry personnel on the importance of law enforcement; and

(c) To promote networking between and amongst wildlife community policing groups and relevant law enforcement authorities to curb illegal trade in wildlife and flora species.