Environment:

The location of this place is stunning, sitting on the lakeshores of a lake and carved amongst beautiful trees. With the aim of preserving this environmental beauty, and that of the rest of the World we hope to develop the lodge in a sustainable way.

This is a time of massive environmental change and there is no way of knowing how these changes will affect Malawi! One thing is for sure, the more we can develop using local resources and techniques, the more stable its future will be.

Some research may be done overseas, Josie Redmonds once volunteered at the Centre of Alternative Technology (CAT), and as many ideas as possible will be demonstrated on site at Butterfly.

We will provide information and encourage these ideas in the wider community. Although the lodge is currently operating conventional flush toilets, we will look to build compost, incorporating them into the system. Most people in Malawi use long drops at present and, before they move towards conventional toilets, and all the problems they entail, we should teach people about the health and environmental benefits of compost toilets.

A clay oven, made from local materials, will be built on site so that we can remove the need for the costly electric one. In the long term it is necessary to plant an area of trees for coppicing, which will help provide our fuel needs in the future. We will look to grow food on site that will help supply the restaurant, and we will work with local produce as much as possible. We will encourage local vegetables and medicinal plants, and the properties of such plants will be documented so that people can learn, and hopefully utilize, a more diverse diet.

Ideas on nutrition will be emphasized and practiced on site. In conjunction with this a seed bank will be established on site so that anyone interested can have access to as many of the things grown on site as possible. Much of the learning will be done on our side, as there is amazing knowledge of the environment when you start to get out and talk to farmers.

Buildings around the site will endeavour to use local materials and will be built to enhance and utilize the environment. Solar power will be thought of, although the site in on mains electricity which is derived from hydropower so this is not a priority. Solar water heating could be used especially in the dry season, as this would reduce the need for firewood.