Only three per cent of Chiradzulu is covered by trees

By Emily Kaliwo -Mana

District Forest Officer (DFO), Rex Namwada Friday said Chiradzulu is among the districts in the country which its land was degraded as trees only cover three per cent of the area.

He said this during a tree planting exercise by Kanyenda Youth Organization at Kanyenda Village, Traditional Authority (TA) Mpama in the district.

“As forest department we are promoting regeneration and afforestation. We have empowered chiefs to govern their areas by enforcing laws so that everyone found destroying trees should face the law,” Namwada said.

Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, McTimes Malowa thanked the youth for the initiative and announced that he would introduce Malowa afforestation at group level and those that would do better in taking care of the trees would be awarded.

He reminded people in the area on the importance of conserving trees, saying that they are a source of food and income among others.

 Mpama II Youth Network Chairperson, Violet Yassin of Nakhundi Youth Club urged the community to support them by ensuring survival of the planted trees and advised fellow youths to join the club.

The Club planted 300 trees and the district has plans to plant 1,500, 000 trees and currently 100,000 trees have already been planted.

Mana/ek/bn/tha