Deforestation is security risk—Army chief
The Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Commander General Griffin Supuni-Phiri has described the country’s deforestation rate as a security risk affecting MDF operations.
He made the remarks at the launch of this year’s National Bank of Malawi plc (NBM) tree planting exercise in Zomba on Saturday.
Supuni-Phiri said deforestation is affecting both their training and operations as they need forest cover to conduct trainings properly.
“This is why we are addressing this issue by not only conducting patrols but also by planting and taking care of trees. Apart from protecting this country from our external enemies, we also jealously guard our constitutional obligation of protecting this country from internal enemies and those involved in deforestation are our internal enemies because the practice is a security risk,” he said.
The army commander added that the low intensity operations that MDF conducts to flush out illegal loggers is a desperate measure aimed at fighting deforestation.
On his part, NBM chief executive officer Macfussy Kawawa said deforestation affects the business community, citing siltation and the low water levels in Lake Malawi and its sole outlet Shire River which has affected power generation.
NBM partnered MDF and the Roman Catholic Church in the tree-planting exercise. The bank donated 50 000 seedlings to the army to be planted this season.
Another useless lecture from the Muhlakho wa Alomwe team member……….
First of all Mr spuni should know that at the rate that Malawians are impregnating each other it is more likely that we will loose our forests in the next 40years….therefore what the army should do, like all sensible armies would do is to adapt to the situation and change their training accordingly to suit the environment that Malawi is in……
This notion that the Malawi army can not train property because there is no forest cover just shows how unknowledgeable and unprofessional Mr spuni is.
We have countries like Israel that have one of the best armies there is on planet earth and they train not in the forest, obviously they don’t have forests as Israel is a desert….
Don’t get me wrong am not condoning the deforestation that is going on in Malawi at the moment but am talking about realities……….Malawi is very small country full of people who have no idea about family planning, full of people who like Mbwiza like no other……………..and when you add these two things the result is overpopulation one of the side effects of which is deforestation…….