Chief lead fight against deforestation and poverty.
Traditional leaders from Chief Likoswe’s area in Chiradzulu have said involvement of communities in development planning is key to fighting against deforestation and poverty.
Group Village Head Sumani 1 and Village Head Mantchombwe said this during needs assessment meetings with officials from Centre for Youth Empowerment & Training (CYET) which took place in the district last Sunday. The traditional leaders said projects that involve communities in the planning process are likely to be sustainable.
During the needs assessment meetings, CYET was training the communities in forestry and woodlot management. Later, the beneficiaries were given free seedlings.
“It is rare for youth organisations to think of important issues like environment, climate change and development. Most youth organisations disregard problems which come as a result of deforestation,” observed GVH Sumani 1.
She also commended the NGO for including traditional leaders in the training, saying chiefs are the ones who implement development programmes in communities.
CYET programme manager Gersom Banda said the project’s main purpose is to increase awareness and enhance communities’ participation in forestry management instruments such as policies, rules, regulations and laws, in the district which has lost 96 percent of its forest cover.
He said CYET’s hopes that at the end of this year-long project, communities in Chiradzulu will be able to critically analyse policies and advocate change after gaining skills in community-based monitoring and evaluation as well as community score-card approach.
“Chiradzulu’s environmental situation is poor. I wish government gave more attention to the district so as to help it regain its lost forest cover. Other environmental players could also contribute some resources,” Banda said.
Banda further outlined the statistics of the main sources of energy in the district, saying: “Out of 288 546 people in Chiradzulu, only 1 241 use electricity for cooking, 3 348 use paraffin, 4 402 use charcoal while 244 999 people use fuel wood and 23 511 people use straw or grass or dry leaves.”
