By Chikondi Manjawira
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-Blantyre residents at Ndirande have agreed to restore the lost forest which was supposed to be a graveyard in Malabada area.
Village Head Gamulani in Ndirande Malabada confirmed this during a tree planting exercise organized by Puma Energy in partnership with Blantyre Press Club on Saturday.
Gamulani said there had been discussions with the Forest department and that an agreement was made to restore the forest and stop people from growing Maize on the area.
“We have agreed with the forest to restore the lost forest and that we will assign people to guard the just planted trees so that no one destroys them or cut them down. We will also be inspecting the growth of the trees to fully recover the lost forest,” said Gamulani.
Puma Energy Chief Executive Officer Dr. Davies Lanjesi expressed his impression towards the great gesture shown by Ndirande village leaders.Dr. Lanjesi believes that the village leadership in Malabada has set up a new standard for other village leaders to follow.
Dr.Lanjesi further saidthat Puma Energy will continue supporting environment conservation through Tree Planting in different parts of the country in order to increase the agricultural productivity which comes as a result of good adequate rains when there are enough trees.
“Our interest as Puma Energy is simple, we care for the environment, we energize communities, we need trees to support life and we believe in conservation of the environment. Therefore we believe this is our way of contributing towards growth and sustainability of our economy,” said Lanjesi.
Dr. Lanjesi also stressed on continued support in tree planting in countless years to come.
Blantyre Press Club Secretary General Esther Nyanja commended Puma Energy for its continuous support in as far as restoration of the environment through tree planting is concerned. She said that it is very important to plant more trees now that there are a lot of climate change effects.
“This is very necessary especially in the current times where different parts of the country/world are facing floods. Planting trees every year will help reduce effects of climate change,” said Nyanja.
Blantyre Press Club for the first time involved Ndirande Private Primary School pupils in its tree planting exercise both in Ndirande Malabada and Makhetha areas. This according to the BPC’ Secretary General was aimed at ensuring that children understand the need of conserving the environment.
Puma Energy and Blantyre Press Club planted 1,500 and 2,500 trees in Ndirande Malabada and Makhetha Hills respectively.
Puma also donated 1,000 trees to Matope Primary School in Ndirande.
Puma Energy has partnered with Blantyre Press Club in tree planting since 2013. Through the partnership trees have been planted in different parts of the country such as Machinga Hills, Nkhatabay, Dzalanyama, Kunthembwe, Liwonde and Soche Hill just to mention a few.