Government has, with immediate effect, suspended all timber licences to protect the depleting forests around the country.
Meanwhile, Parliament heard yesterday that over 25 million trees equivalent to 20,000 hectares will be planted during the 2012/2013 tree planting season countrywide to help address depleting forests due to increased deforestation.
Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister, Wylbur Simuusa said the programme would be implemented through the launch of the National Tree Planting Programme (NTPP).
He said in a ministerial statement that deforestation rates globally stood between 250,000 to 300, 000 hectares per annum and the attendant annual saw log or timber deficit was 2.5 million cubic metres.
Mr Simuusa said the NTPP, once fully rolled out, could create over 200,000 jobs while the first phase of establishing 11 large scale forest nurseries and community ones could create over 6,000 jobs countrywide.
“There is urgent need Mr Speaker, for a serious concerted effort to address this very serious situation and for the first time in 30 years, your Patriotic Front (PF) Government in line with its manifesto has taken a bold step to address the depleting forest resources by funding my ministry with an initial amount of K12 billion,” he said.
Among other tree species to be planted in different parts of the country include, pinus and eucalyptus for timber, poles and resins, faldherbia albida for animal fodder, nitrogen fixing, firewood, moringa oleifera for medicine and oil and fruits trees.
Mr Simuusa said the purpose of funding was to establish 11 large scale tree nurseries in all 10 provinces and one at the Forestry Research Centre in Kitwe.
He said the funding would raise 17,500,000 tree seedlings in 11 large scale forest nurseries countrywide by December 15, 2012 and would engage about 5,000 local people during production.
Her said the funding would assist in developing an out-grower scheme to produce 8 million seedlings countrywide valued at K 1 billion which would involve chiefs, schools, churches and other stakeholders.
At provincial level, he said, the nursery size could be two to three hectares per district, 1,550 tonnes of soil collected for nursery while 452 workers would be engaged in each province and at the Forest Research Centre.
Central Province would have 700 hectares, Copperbelt 5,000, Eastern 2,700, Luapula 5,000, Lusaka 4,000, Muchinga 10,000, Northern 5,000, Northwestern 5,000, Southern 3,000, and Western 5, 000.
He said forestry were a renewable natural resource which with prudent management, could sustain the country in providing forestry goods and employment opportunities.
On the suspension of timber licences, he said, as empowered under section 68 (20 9F) of the laws of Zambia, the move would not apply to exotic timber plantations or timber that legally extracted, processed and was in timber yards, factories or markets.
MMD Keembe MP, Ronnie Shikapwasha wondered what Government was doing to address increased charcoal burning to which Mr Simuusa responded that Government was in discussion with stakeholders.
Meanwhile, Tourism and Arts Minister Sylvia Masebo told the House that Government had approved supplementary funding of K150 billion for capital projects in preparation for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to be hosted in Livingstone next year.
She said in a ministerial statement that K40 billion out of the K150 billion was released last month and that Government’s plan was to complete all capital projects for the UNWTO general conference by June 2013.
“In an effort to create awareness of the upcoming event and involvement of the local community in Livingstone, meetings were held with various stakeholder groups,” she said.
She said a countdown to mark 365 days till the event was launched at the One Stop Shop in Livingstone on the eve of August 24, 2012 to create local awareness and foster destination participation.
She said Zambia was on course in hosting UNWTO and called for concerted from other stakeholders to support Government’s efforts adding that Zambia and Zimbabwe had come up with a common logo and mascot- a drum with the slogan ‘The Beat is Here’ which would be used in all promotional materials.
Acting Home Affairs Minister, Kennedy Sakeni also presented to the House the 2013 estimates of revenue and expenditure for the Zambia Police Service of K890 billion, the Drug Enforcement Commission at K41.4 billion while allocation for other departments at the Ministry was K337 billion which were all under still debate.
You are attacking the wrong culprit! Charcoal burning is a symptom of poor distribution of power and in some cases unaffordable electrical power!! I hope the ban will not end at replanting; you need a mind-map that will identify as many triggers as there possibly are (even the benign ones) and begin to address those from all angles. PLEASE!
This is just window dressing. It’s Malasha that is the biggest problem in Zambia. If govt is serious they can’t say nothing about Malasha and think they’re addressing the issue. They need to address energy needs for the local household and ban Malasha. Does minister see the problem as the local household energy needs – no!
You’ve hit the nail on its head Sir. The issue is household energy needs, then timber exports and local timber needs.
The household energy needs is directly linked to Zesco prepaid meters and needs to be sorted out today. Then the ban can apply to timber exports then ascertain timber needs for local use. If we are not serious we are in for the biggest trouble which will be difficult to resolve.
Sahara desert was a rain forest at one time some million years ago.
This is the way to go.please consider working with the green revolution clubs they do have a similar programm to mitigate on the global warming and climatic change.
Such programs can only be implemented if given to the military wings, such as Z.National Service or political party to use for campaign purposes. If its to be implemented by the ministry or NGOs it will be another worse of time and more loss of trees.
They stump out exciting trees to plant new trees.
STOP THE CHARCOAL BURNERS PLEASE
UNIP was the last government to have done this; MMD just promoted consumption. Someone stands up to start working on the issue, people say its window dressing. What a people!! The government is resolving the problem but the results will only be seen in the next 5 to 8 years (short term) and 9 to 15 years long term. Planting trees, buillding more dams and expanding rural electrification are solutions being taken to simultaneously solve the crises of deforestation, restocking of timber for economic development and the increase in energy production. For me, this is what i love about these Kaponyas, they are dealing with problems strategically; unlike the educated government yaba sakala nyongo. But only those trained to see things this way can agree with me; the rest kaya!!
The suggestion of using soldiers is great; except with the current levels of unemployment is too high to go that route. Its a Zambia for all; so its better to employ even the pautry 5000; it goes a long way. I would use soldiers to clean Lusaka first, and then ask them to man it for 6 months to ensure that who ever throws dirt can be recruited to clean the city on voluntary basis for a week. Marketeers need to bring their bin bags with them so they can take away their garbage at close of business. This is what councils in developed countries do. This for me is a serious issue for PF; clean up Lusaka and you will win more hearts.
Good morning Hon Simuusa! Slept well?
Well this is a start. At African Community Project we will distribute millions of tree seeds to our community forests across Zambia. These seeds are coming from trees we have planted in the past. We also have an answer to charcoal burning…………….. make it sustainable! Read my book on creating sustainable community forests. I think the government is starting too.
You’ve hit the nail on its head Sir. The issue is household energy needs, then timber exports and local timber needs.
The household energy needs is directly linked to Zesco prepaid meters and needs to be sorted out today. Then the ban can apply to timber exports then ascertain timber needs for local use. If we are not serious we are in for the biggest trouble which will be difficult to resolve.
Sahara desert was a rain forest at one time some million years ago. Lets get serious this is more important than the by election.
1. You create community forests 2. They manage the charcoal making. 3. They pay the Government taxes, Royalities and collect the charcaol at depots. 4. the charcoal is then sent to warehouses in urban centres and sold to marketeers. The money goes back to the community, they pay the charcoal maker, and do reforestation. The government can pick up the tab for forest guards and nursery people, thus creating jobs! The secret here is that the community takes back the forests and owns it! Don’t wait for the Koreans (invited by you President) comes for all this free land in Zambia!
Kamalasha is the worst enemy the environment has. In the olden days, we used to have baka penda mabula and where are they now? As along as these chaps are not regulated, forget about the forests. When you are flying from Joburg into Zambian airspace, all you need to know you are in Zambia is the number of areas with smoke belowing into the atmosphere. SA, Bot and Zim are usually smoke free. Tap the Gas in Zambezi and promote it to Zambians.
Ban Malasha please and arrest the truck drivers who are exporting the comodity to Botswana. Let us encourage small miners to go into Coal mining. Coal can be promoted in place of malasha.
As usual the government is politicizing the matter or just playing ignorant. Bloggers have already noticed the problem but as usual the government has failed to see one year already in office that its charcoal burning and chitemene system by the Bembas that has depleted the forests.
Recipe for Disaster.A civil service full of kaponyas, relatives, friends, mistresses, girl friends, concubines and concubines of friends, friends of friends.
This government never does anything out of Good will. just wait and see how many pf ministers and cadres will end up been given these same timber licenses. this ban is just to create demand for the same.
Malasha is good business it keeps people employed so lets not discourage it.
Just make it sustainable. You will never replace this way of cooking,or should you try. Please don’t say electricity or solar. Just plant more trees it is that simple.
Nonsense! Sum1 wakes up and bans trade just like that? And you reporters put no meat on the story Dig up info bangwele!