Malawi to plant 60 million trees annually
Malawi Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Halima Daud has disclosed that Malawi will continue planting 60 million trees every year as one way of mitigating desertification which is threatening most countries in Africa.
Speaking after returning from the Conference of Parties eleven (Cop 11) by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Namibia recently, Daud said Malawians should not only plant trees during the rainy season but throughout the year.
“As government with the assistance of nongovernmental organisations will make sure that over 61 million trees are planted every year. Trees should not be planted during the rainy season but even on special occasions like wedding days, birthdays, anniversaries and even when one is celebrating passing of examinations,” said Daud.
She said: “As a delegation at the COP 11 summit we learnt a lot in terms of sustainable land management and our expectation is that countries will support the outcomes of the RIO+20 Summit which calls for a land degradation free world.”
Daud further stated that Malawi has put in place several policies and acts that support sustainable land management which are enforced fully by government.
“We have a National Enviroment Policy, the Forest Policy, the Forest Act, and Enviromental Management Act all aimed at making sure that the environment is being taken care of and is not destroyed,” said Daudi.
Another good development but has to be supported by other good social policies. Sometimes good policies are not popular policies and may attract political setbacks but if we are to move forward as a nation, we need to implement them. Population control has to be taken seriously. Our land is not expanding neither is our economy growing so that people can be shifted from agriculture to industry and services. For this reason, our population is unsustainable and natural resources will always take a downward curve. There is an urgent need to engage this otherwise our efforts will still pale compared to the problems that we face