By Witness Banda
Amid reports that Malawi loses close to 32 hectares of trees yearly, the corporate world has stepped up efforts in afforestation drive.
One of the firms, Mthunzi Funeral Service, a subsidiary of Old Mutual, has, since the beginning of the year, planted over 15,000 trees compared to 10,000 trees planted by the same time last year.
Speaking during launch of a tree planting exercise at Ekwendeni Girls Secondary School, Old Mutual Northern Region Administrator Patrick Ngoma said replenishing the environment needs collaboration.
Ngoma said it is obvious that once afforestation exercises are successful, impacts of climate change will be mitigated.
“I would like to encourage people to plant trees because when we plant trees we conserve nature and we will run away from tropical Storm Anna and we will be better off” Ngoma said.
Old mutual launched the exercise with the help of stakeholders such as Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (Wesm) and students.
Mzuzu Wesm Chairperson Twalibu Tandwe said their duty is to protect the environment and educate the masses on the importance of protecting nature.
“It is an important event because trees are very important in our daily lives. We are losing a lot of trees in Malawi; so, if we live without planting trees, Malawi can turn into a desert” Tandwe said.
One of the students at Ekwendeni Girls Private Secondary School, Hannah Baluwa, encouraged fellow youths to be planting trees.
“When they see people cutting down trees without planting them again, we have to go and advise them that they are doing wrong and they are destroying our planet earth; so, planting trees is important” Baluwa said.