The Cove is a social enterprise venture in Chitende, Malawi. Our mission is to utilize money from tourism revenue to support community-driven development projects. We are building an eco-lodge on the beautiful lake shore of northern Malawi. Our vision is to use nature and tourism to bring people together to solve the unique challenges our community faces. We strongly believe that it takes time to learn the ins-and-outs of our landscape, but it's essential to understanding the community and environment that we've chosen to be a part of.

We strive to nurture and protect the natural environment in which we work and embrace a natural building philosophy that re-purposes natural and artificial resources that are going to waste. We are constantly surveying our local landscape to identify natural materials that don't get used. The Cove is also unique in that we are allowing nature to shape the design of the lodge itself. We are intentionally choosing to build our structures where nature has already provided us a clearing, allowing us to integrate ourselves into our environment in a healthy, non-destructive manner.

Conservation & Community Highlights:

1. Natural Building Experimentation – we are utilizing wasted natural resources in the area for building and limiting/eliminating the use of cement in our structures.
2. Permaculture – we are integrating permaculture design into our landscape as we are building and establishing a permaculture garden on part of the land that is baren.
3. Land Conservation – we are educating our community on the importance of preserving the local trees, grasses, animals, and fish.
4. Soil erosion – we are working with the greater community to enhance the soil in surrounding areas (especially around the seasonal road) with a diverse, local vegetation. Our goal is to also create income generation in the community through this environmental program.

Future Aims:

1. Fish/Lake Conservation and Preservation – we would like to learn more about the lake ecosystem and become more involved in its preservation.
2. Income Generation in Community Through Waste Management – we would like to create economic opportunities in the community through developing a new waste management system, which could also be beneficial to our natural building techniques.
3. Seed Multiplication – we would love to eventually start a nursery or seed multiplication program and plant natural trees in the surrounding areas.

Images provided.