The Lions Club of Capital City (LCCC) has advised communities to attain ownership of the trees being planted in their areas.
This was said by the LCCC president, Lion Pierre Mbisa during a tree planting exercise that was held at Chaima village in Lilongwe on Saturday.
Mbisa said every year trees are planted but the survival rate of the trees is low because people in areas where trees are planted do not take full responsibility.
He said together with their partners, the Malawi Defence Force (MDF), involved the communities surrounding the area to make sure that after the exercise the villagers should have a sense of ownership.
“We are confident that the trees we have planted today will survive and will be well cared for because when we first approached the Senior Chief about the exercise he showed a lot of interest.
“He told us that they once planted trees this season but they did not cover a huge area because the trees were not enough,” Mbisa said.
Commanding Officer of the second battalion of MDF, Gift Njete said to make sure that trees are being protected they meet local authorities and advise them on how they improve on conservation of the trees.
“As a country, we are not performing in terms of environmental conservation so we will make sure that we conserve our environment. Above that most of our work is done in the forest,” Njete said.
Apart from MDF and the community, the LCCC also involved primary students from schools surrounding the area.
In his remarks, Senior Chief Kankuzi of the area said the trees will assist his community a lot as they are going to restore the fertility of the land.
The chief asked for more trees to be planted in the area as most of them were destroyed.
Assistant District Forest Officer, Farai Kafandikhale said the core goal of the forestry department is to give communities the needed skills for planting and managing trees but what lacks is resources as such what the Lions Club did is commendable.
He said the issue of environmental degradation is very huge as people have started cultivating the land reserved for trees due to high population.
Furthermore, he commended the club for involving primary school students noting this would help them develop a spirit of protecting the environment.
