Nkhotakota, February 16: Total Land Care (TLC) has complained of lack of passion from community members in Nkhotakota to plant numerous trees despite the organization providing them with seeds and tubes for them to develop nurseries and then plant the seedlings.
TLC Research Assistant Edward Chibambo expressed the concern in Chota Village in the area of Senior Chief Malengachanzi during the launch of Nkhotakota district tree planting season which was organized by Nkhotakota District Forestry Office and TLC.
Chibambo said TLC provides seeds and tubes to community members organised in village natural resources management clubs (VNRMCs) to develop nurseries and then plant the tree seedlings as one way of conserving the environment.
“However, it is sad to note that most community members only develop the nurseries and many tree seedlings die at nursery level because of lack of commitment from community members to plant the tree seedlings.
“Most of the times women are the ones who are willing to take part in environmental conservation by taking part in tree planting. In view of this, during this year’s tree planting season, we will work closely with extension workers and men to make sure that we reach our target of planting 1.4 million trees,” Chibambo said.
Chota VNRMC Chairperson Ramadan Saidi said Chota VNRMC will continue encouraging community members to plant trees as one way of mitigating the effects of climate change and deforestation in the area.
“We established this club in 2008 and we have eight woodlots. We also encourage community members to plant trees in bare lands and river banks,” said Saidi.
Deputy Regional Forestry Officer Tresa Mvula asked community members to take care of the planted trees for them to survive. She indicated that for the past years the country has been planting many trees but they were not cared for thereby resulting into a low survival rate.
In his remarks, Nkhotakota District Council Chairperson Manfred Kwanjiwa implored Nkhotakota District Forestry Office to provide tree seedlings across the district because some communities do not have nurseries.
“Sometimes the community members are given the seedlings to plant towards the end of the rainy season and this becomes hard for the communities. I would therefore request the district forestry office and its partners to provide the seedlings now to the communities to plant,” said Kwanjiwa.
This year’s theme for tree planting season is ‘plant one tree per person per year’
