More than 80 % of the rural population in sub-Saharan Africa is poor and traditionally relies on forests for their livelihoods (Schreckenberg et al. 2006); including slash and burn agriculture, charcoal and timber production. Fuel wood is one of the primary sources of energy for domestic use and processing (curing tobacco, drying fish, etc.) throughout the SADC region (Shackleton and Clarke 2007). It accounts for the highest percentage of the national energy budget in many Southern African countries namely; 85 % in Mozambique (Brigham et al. 1996); 76 % in Zambia (Chidumayo 1997); 95 % in Malawi (PROBEC 2009) and 52 % in Zimbabwe (Griffin 1999).

Charcoal production and the use of land for agriculture have resulted in defor­estation and forest cover loss (Brown 2001), and massive loss of fauna, flora and

high productive ecosystems (Syampungani 2008; Chirwa et al. 2008a; Syampungani et al. 2009). Large tracts of forestland are being converted to either agricultural fields or abandoned charcoal production sites. For example, the annual rate of deforestation per year between 1990 and 2000 ranged from 33,000 ha in Malawi to 445,000 ha in Zambia (FAO 2005). Mayaux et al. (2004) estimated forest area under agriculture to be 15.2 % in the Southern African region. Because of the nature of shifting cultivation that is widely practiced in the region, land under agriculture represents a number of cover types, including cropland, abandoned fields and fallow at various stages of recovery present; forming a typical mosaic landscape (Timberlake et al. 2010). Such mosaic landscapes have forest formations that are represented by tall, almost closed-canopy stands and many areas of cleared woodland for shifting cultivation and charcoal production (Syampungani 2008). This, to some extent, has affected the spatial integrity of most of the woodlands and forests in the region. When converting woodlands to agriculture not all trees are necessarily cleared and, as a result, cultivated land is often dotted with trees such as Adansonia digitata, Vitellaria paradoxa, Sclerocarya spp., Borassus spp., and Faidherbiaalbida (Timberlake et al. 2010).

Population pressure coupled with the drive to monocultures increased deforesta­tion in the region thereby contributing to loss of biodiversity (Geist 1999). The low rates of economic transformation to individual levels have led to widespread poverty in the region. This in turn has increased the demand for woodland resources, and therefore deforestation (Table 4.1). This is because the economies of the sub­Saharan Africa are still dependent on the premises of charcoal production, shifting cultivation and to some extent timber harvesting (see Syampungani 2008).