President Mutharika launches 2019/2020 Forestry Season

By Nellie Kapatuka – ManaMulanje, December 19, Mana: President Peter Mutharika on Wednesday launched the 2019/2020 National Forestry Season with a call to Malawians to embrace tree planting and conservation.Speaking at Nkando in Mulanje, the president said trees were very important especially in the fight against climate change which was negatively affecting the world, including Malawi.”Malawi has not been spared from the effects of climate change as evidenced by the frequent floods, unreliable rainfall patterns and drying up of lakes and rivers among other things,” Mutharika said.He said it was for this reason that every Malawian, youths particularly should take up the responsibility of planting trees.The president said K5billion had been set aside for the Malawi Youth Forestry Restoration Program which was empowering youths across the country in tree planting exercises.Binton Kumtsaira, Binton Kumtsaira said the country was on the right track in as far as landscape restoration was concerned, saying 1.3 of the total 4.5 million hectares of landscape that Malawi pledged to restore by 2030 had been restored representing 27 percent.“This forestry season, we plan to plant about 62 million tree seedlings,” disclosed.This year’s forestry season was launched under the theme, ‘Trees and forests for transformed landscapes and livelihoods’.Mana/nyk/bn/gjp