Committee for proper forest management

Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change chairperson Werani Chilenga has asked government to give concessions to firms and individuals that have the capacity to manage the country’s forests.

Speaking on Saturday when the committee toured a reforestation project in Zomba Mountain managed by Raiply Limited, he said he was impressed with what Raiply is doing in replenishing forests in Viphya Plantation in the North, Chigumula in Blantyre and in Zomba Mountain.

“These projects require huge investments and are labour intensive. Government gave concessions to some Malawians to manage trees in the form of an association, they harvested the trees and planted new ones, but now they are failing to manage the trees,” Chilenga said.

Raiply general manager Swastik Shetty said they plan to plant pine and blue gum trees in 200 hectares (ha) each year for the next three years in the 600ha allocated to them in Zomba.

He said: “We plant about 1 300 trees per ha. Raiply Malawi Limited is investing heavily to restore Zomba and Chigumula plantations.

“We are investing about K250 million or K300 million every year and the trees will be ready for harvesting in 15 to 25 years. This is a long-term concession of about 60 years. We are doing this for the future generation.”

In a separate interview, Zomba Timber plantation manager Daniel Mbeu described the situation at Zomba Mountain as a crisis, saying it is losing about 100ha of trees every year.

“Deforestation is rampant, communities depend so much on the mountain and they are difficult to deal with,” he said.

Mbeu commended Raiply’s initiative, saying it will help replace the trees as well as beef up security in the mountain.