The resources provided by Malawi’s Mount Mulanje are under threat. This area of unique biodiversity and endemic species is being encroached upon by cultivators, harvesters of timber, charcoal-makers, fire-setting hunters, and, according to some, even staff of the Forest Department responsible for its sustainable management. At the same time, the mountain provides a broad range of natural resources and environmental services to the people who live near it, including food, fuel, medicines, and, most importantly, pure clean water from its many rivers and streams. If the encroachment is not stopped, all of the other services will be stopped, to the detriment of those who live in Mulanje and Phalombe Districts. The cost of replacing those services is likely to be much greater than the costs of preventing encroachment, and the benefits reaped in the short run by those responsible for encroachment are likely to be far lower than the benefits of sustainable use of the mountain.

This paper presents the design of a study to actually estimate the value of the mountain’s services, to permit rigorous comparison of the costs and benefits of alternate management scenarios in the region. It is the result of a three-week mission to Malawi conducted in June and July 2005. The mission was spent gathering basic information about the uses of and threats to the mountain, developing a framework for their valuation, identifying (insofar as possible) data sources that could be used to complete that framework, and mapping out a time frame and staffing needs. The study is to be implemented in a subsequent mission to Malawi, probably to be conducted in late 2005 or early 2006.