Table 1.

Summary characteristics of the four study villages

Attribute	Makombe	Kasonga	Mtuluma	Mpheta
Area	Shire River Basin	Zomba Forest Reserve	Zomba Forest Reserve	Lake Chilwa Basin
Coordinates	x = 728527 y = 830935	x = 745591 y = 830638	x = 742772 y = 831352	x = 769814 y = 831749
Vegetation type	Mopane savanna	Semi-evergreen forest	Miombo savanna	Wetland and riparian fringe
Extent of forest cover	Low	Medium-high	High	Low
Deforestation rate	Low	High	Medium	Low
No. of male-headed hhs	96	96	38	307
No. of female-headed hhs	25	33	17	90
No. of children (8–19 years)	299	293	134	1051
No. of very poor hhs a	63	0	38	51
No. of poor hhs a	45	42	13	251
No. of better off hhs a	13	87	4	5
Economic activities	Quarrying, Timber production, Agriculture (Maize and Irish potatoes)	Agriculture (Cotton and maize), Livestock production	Agriculture (Maize, Cassava), Small -scale businesses	Agriculture (Rice, fisheries), Small-scale businesses, Livestock production
Education of childrenb	Primary completion ratec: 41.9% for Zomba district Transition rate to secondary schoold: 39% for Zomba District

^a(hh status was determined via participatory, self categorisation)

^bNSO ( 2014)

^cNumber of children attending the last class of primary school (excluding repeaters) divided by number of children of primary school completion age (age appropriate to final class of primary school)

^dNumber of children attending the last class of primary school during the previous school year who are in the first class of secondary school during the current school year divided by number of children attending the class of primary school during the previous school year