Communities demand harmonised nature conservation practices
Communities in the Shire Valley have recommended to government harmonised processes and practices for conservation of nature and natural resources which, they argue, are increasingly leading to perennial natural disasters.
The people made the recommendation on Saturday at Chikwawa Secondary School during a conference and solidarity march on climate change and environment to create awareness on the need for disaster preparedness and other actions ahead of the 2015/16 rain season.
During the conference held under the theme ‘Fight Climate Change, Avoid Natural Disasters, Safeguard the Future’, participants observed that conflicting procedures and natural resources’ conservations practices relating to agriculture, fisheries and forestry were among major factors aiding natural disasters.
Paramount Chief Lundu said people in the two Lower Shire districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje will continue facing natural disasters because most interventions in the area are carried out without their involvement.
Later the citizens who included community leaders, government officials, students, private sector and members of the civil society organisations (CSOs) under the State of the Union (Sotu) project, presented a communiqué to President Peter Mutharika through Chikwawa district commissioner Bester Mandele to address issues of conservation of nature and natural resources, disaster management and preparedness, and climate change justice.
Receiving the communiqué, Mandele assured the citizens to swiftly forward it to the President, saying he believed issues contained in it were important not only to people of Lower Shire but the country as a whole.
He said: “I believe that when authorities get hold of these they will take them seriously because if implemented the challenges we face in Lower Shire will be minimised because most of these disasters are not created by the natives but come from the Upper Shire.”
On his part, Sotu coordinator Edward Chileka Banda said it was important that government started putting in place strategic measures to manage disasters ahead of the forthcoming rain season.
“The experience that we have had over the years should give us enough lessons to put in place instruments that would help us handle these disasters,” said Banda.
