Forests essential to people’s well-being—UK envoy

The Uited Kingdom (UK) High Commission has urged Malawians to value and conserve forests as they are essential to the well-being of everyone in the country.

Deputy British High Commissioner Olympia Wereko-Brobby said this during the commemoration of International Day of Forests in Lilongwe where Malawi and Britain also launched the National Forest and Landscape Restoration Monitoring Unit.

She observed that Malawi’s forests are under stress from unsustainable use such as illegal charcoal production. She said the unit will help in monitoring usage of forests.

Wereko-Brobby, who is also development director at the British High Commission, said: “This unit, through accessible technology, provides for the first time in this country a system that can support the monitoring of forest landscape restoration.

“It will be a critical tool in mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, something that is at the front of all our minds, given the devastating loss Cyclone Freddy has caused.”

Despite launching the National Forest Landscape Restoration Strategy in 2017, the country’s Department of Forestry has been operating without the monitoring unit or a system that could effectively monitor forest landscape restoration nationwide

In an interview after the launch, Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change Michael Usi said the unit is a critical tool in as far as forest management and landscape restoration are concerned.

He said the unit’s functions will include indicating areas that have problems such as deforestation.

“It is like a diagnostic equipment that will tell you where the problem is and where the problem will migrate. So it gives you a password for curative and preventive action,” said Usi.

The unit has been installed with financial support through Modern Cooking for Healthy Forest project co-funded by United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAid) and United States Agency for International Development. UKAid is being used to build the capacity staff working in the monitoring unit, including how to effectively use forest monitoring equipment.

Malawi has, in line with the Bonn Challenge, pledged to restore 4.5 million hectares of degraded land and the UK remains committed to supporting this pledge.