GOVT LAUNCHES 10 MILLION-TREE CAMPAIGN

MANZINI – Government has launched a campaign with a goal of planting 10 million trees in the next five years. 

The campaign was launched by Prime Minister (PM) Ambrose Dlamini during an event held at the Matsapha Town Council yesterday. 

The premier said the campaign’s aim was to plant trees of indigenous and high value species within the five years. 

He said this would be done to ensure improved livelihoods, reduced land degradation, improved conservation of genetic materials, enhanced biodiversity, as well as contribute towards COVID-19 recovery and resilience to climate change. 

The project has been themed ‘Plant a tree and save the environment’, which in vernacular says; ‘Hlanyela sihlahla, wonge imvelo’. 

Programme

According to the PM, the programme would not just be about numbers, but ensuring that the right value of trees were planted in right places for the right purpose. 

In that regard, he said their emphasis during the implementation would be to ensure that those indigenous tree species which emaSwati had placed value on over a period of time, were prioritised.

He invited all specialists in this field, both in the private and public sector, to avail their expertise and collaborate with the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs through the department of forestry for the programme to succeed.  

He said he had been informed that these collaborative efforts had given birth to technical guides. 

For instance, he said a tree planting manual; basic list of selected recommended indigenous fruit trees and shrubs for home gardens and a list of medicinal and food plants for domestication had been produced.  “To plant 10 million trees within five years, taking into consideration the resources needed, is indeed an ambitious goal,” the PM said.

He said it was in that regard that a holistic participatory approach was essential for the goal to be realised. 

He said he was alive to the fact that they were embarking on this exercise when there was no specific land set aside for this activity. 

He said their success would therefore depend on the active participation of every liSwati planting trees in their households, on farms, in schools, in church surroundings and all public spaces. 

He said it would be realised if all institutions in the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), diplomatic missions, development partners as well as government agencies participated by setting aside their resources and time to assist the administration.

On the same note, the PM said having the launch in one of the country’s municipalities reminded him that most of their towns and cities had what they called ‘Green Space Strategies’. 

He said it was encouraging that some had already identified areas where they would establish mini forests.

The PM said he was pleased to launch the all important initiative to replenish the country’s environment with trees. 

He said the importance of forests in people’s lives could not be overemphasised, especially at a time when the effects of climate change continuously made them pay the price for not being responsible to their environment. 

He said deforestation was occurring worldwide and at alarming rates, due to land use change, increasing demand for forest resources and expansion of agricultural land. 

In that regard, he said a typical example of deforestation in this country was the prevalent sale of firewood by the roadside from felling indigenous tree species. 

Wildfires

He said other threats to the existence of trees included periodic wildfires, which were recorded annually, in particular during the dry seasons. 

He said science had taught them that good practices such as planting trees, curbing deforestation and actively reforesting land were key measures of combating climate change.

“Current projections show that Eswatini, like the rest of the region, will continue to get warmer and rainfall patterns will be unpredictable in the not so distant future. Just recently, the country experienced extreme weather events ranging from droughts, floods, heat waves and storms thus straining the economy,” the PM said. 

He said it was in that regard that as government, they were committed to taking the necessary action to adapt to these climate extremes by adopting policies and strategies that would guide all sectors appropriately as they joined the world in finding solutions to the scourge. 

Moreover, he said the National Climate Change Policy, National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, as well as other roadmap documents such as the Nationally Determined Contribution, as guided by the international principles, mandated each sector to take action in building eco-systems and community resilience to curb these disasters. 

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