At one time there was a cableway to transport timber from the edge of the plateau down to the Likhubula Forestry Station but it fell into disrepair and currently planks are carried down manually.

The native Mulanje cypress (Widdringtonia whytei) has been so heavily logged that it is considered endangered and the park contains the last remaining stands of this tree, as well as a number of other plant and animal species—many of them endemic to the area.

Recent work by the Catholic University has unearthed tool-making sites along the Thuchila shelf dating back to the Middle Stone Age, some 100,000 years ago.

The main Bantu immigration came from the Congo Basin in the 1600s, with the Mang'anja people settling in a number of sites around the Mulanje Area.

Livingstone's call for help in ending the slave trade brought Scottish missionaries and settlers into the area who established themselves by setting up a mission on the slopes of the mountain and in estate agriculture, respectively.

From this time, there were also inward migrations of the Lomwe people from the Portuguese east, escaping both colonial and Yao strife, who largely settled among the European estates and the Catholic missions.

European settlement flourished to develop the extensive tea estates that represent the first significant cultivation of this crop outside its countries of origin.

The Mulanje Massif, because its unique position as a “mountain island” rising more than 2,500 metres above the surrounding plains, is strongly affected by the ITCZ, acting as a rain barrier.

This experiences the highest amounts of rain due to the south-east trades of the southern hemisphere that drive the moist air from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo into the Mulanje region.

The wet season (November–April) is not recommended for hiking in the massif, as the hiker faces heavy rains on the plateau and high temperatures during the ascent.

[9] The Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytei) was proclaimed the National Tree of Malawi in 1984 by the late president Hastings Banda.

Scientists disagree about whether this is a distinct species or a giant form of the other cedar found on the mountain, W. nodiflora, which is common across Southern Africa.

Its major qualities are that it is worked easily and is extremely durable, being naturally resistant to attacks from termites, wood-boring insects and fungi.

For these reasons, the timber achieved commercial significance from the 1940s onward, as described by Laurens van der Post in his book Venture to the Interior,[citation needed] becoming a principal resource for building and woodworking.

As of 2010 the timber is most used in the making of local arts and crafts, fishing boats for Lake Malawi, and in the construction and decoration of many prestigious buildings.

In addition, controlled early burning is carried out to reduce the build-up of combustible material that might cause intense and damaging fires later in the dry season.

In 2010 there was a significant increase in law-enforcement action involving armed forestry teams patrolling the cedar forests to stop the illegal pit sawyers.

[10] It was re-assessed as 'critically endangered' by the IUCN in 2011, wherein the assessor, Aljos Farjon, based on the 2004 data, stated that the species would experience a population reduction of 80% by 2030.

[10] In addition to the risk of losing this tree, there is also the potential loss of the other endemic plant and animal species that inhabit these unique forests.