The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has halted with immediate effect all development projects taking place at forest reserve 27 in Lusaka in order for government to find out how plots were acquired within the reserve area.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Elijah Muchima has instructed the director of the commission of lands to take stock of all activities that have been happening at the forest reserve.
Mr Muchima expressed sadness over the amount of land that has been taken up for development in the forest 27 area, which is also called Chalimbana system recharge area.
Mr Muchima promised to bring sanity in the audition of land as was indicated in the campaigns. He was speaking today when he toured the forest reserve 27 in Lusaka today.
And Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Gary Nkombo stated that following up the illegalities happening at the forests is important even to the next generations.
Mr Nkombo said government will make sure to salvage the recharge area in order to help people around the Chalimbana and Chongwe river areas.
He expressed sadness that despite being advised not to develop the forest by the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), the pre-current government still exercised a large portion of the forest reserve 27 area.
Meanwhile, Head of Chalimbana Conservation Trust, Robert Chimambo and Princess Choolwe Nkomesha have expressed gratitude that government is living up to the promise of protecting the environment and the forest reserves.
In 2009, the forest reserve 27 had 1,759 hectares and after being exercised three times in the recent years, only 716 hectares is left.
The recklessness of the PF government. Unfathomable! And they pretend to be surprised at the loss of elections!
Weldone. Next stop mining in National Parks as that money wont benefit Zambians but will make us loose animals through which Kenya rakes in millions of Dollars.
Do Not Hesitate to send in the Bulldozers to demolish all structures and get the Culprits to replant the trees .
Show No Mercy,this was Edigar Chagwa Lungu and hisPF Corrupt Criminal Enterprise of a Government at its most reckless and destructive tendency
Lungu , lungu , lungu……….
THE NEWS GETS BETTER BY THE DAY !
PF LOOTERS BEWARE
Was this not Edgar China Lungu’s daughter involved in this? That’s the first Lungu going to jail!
Well done HH govt .Lungu’s corruption money for “empowerment” was funded thru illegal harvest of Mukula trees and other timber.
Now demolish all the structures there as soon as possible. Do not leave a single structure standing there.
If you want to bring sanity tell all UPND MPs who have been awarded plots in that forest to give them up…send in ZNS bulldozers to demolish all buildings in that forest and block all roads. NEXT move to NRDC and revisit that deal!!
In Kenya, they bulldozed illegal structures, some of which were multistorey buildings. I’m not sure what possessed Lungu and jean Kapata to do such a terrible thing. To dismantle a national treasure on which a natural resource depends was more than just greed: it was total disdain, total disregard for the people of zambia, may you rot in hell.
What a responsible government,,, pf a bunch of low thinking failures were very careless to jeopardise a very sensitive area.
Can you imagine 5 more years of PF goons…the country would have been a banana state
Next move on to Lower Zambezi National Park and halt mining there if you are serious about promoting tourism and our national parks!!
A good sign of a proactive government that is ready to turn a new page and put the country first before individuals. I recall how vehemently people spoke out against this project but nothing was done to clarify the matter. How can you expect people to vote for you if you don’t take their concerns seriously? The same goes for the mining projects in the national parks. Time to halt the big fish from swallowing the small fish. Zambia is not for sale!
Kakeni ba sakala nyongo abo.
Some of us the reason we despite PF, because they never cared about The Importance of Precedent.
UPND No more five years.
When visionless ID10T PFools took over power, what did you expect?
The air keeps getting fresher and fresher
PF this PF that….you’re now ruling and time is ticking…stop acting as if you’re still in opposition…and HH is also part of forest 27 looters and a few of UPND officials…..UPND is useless
Bane — and this goes for all human beings. When the earth has reached its tipping point it will tip all of us off and still go on. Mars is inhabited and nothing stops earth from being inhabited … it’s a sobering fact. In the name of short miserable lives we have destroyed the earth trying to “live it up”. Ni zanu!
Making pronouncements is one thing and actually carrying them out is another. While we are at it, let’s also get a list of the owners of these plots. I believe it includes PF and upnd officials, including top ministry of lands officials as well as top business officials.
So please send in the bulldozers, we are waiting.
What a sweet end for Robert Chimanbo, et al !
The people who ran PF were so greed. The started by sharing the Lusaka Parks and garden land along Mwatusanaga Road. Then they went to State Lodge where they build roads with street lights before people built houses. Then it was Chikole forest on Burma Road where they are building the National House of Prayer. From there it was NRDC land in Silverest and finally Forest 27. I don’t what was next.
Forest 27. So much publicity. vested interest indeed. What about other forests? its all zee like nothing is happening. A forest I know is being reaped apart 90 kilometers east of lusaka and no one is talking about it.Its all the same but treated differently because of selfish interests and politically charged for that matter.If you are serious show us by also stopping what is happening at Chinyunyu forest reserve. more damage is being done there. How about that bwana minister.
Garry Nkombo warned in Parliament that the UPND gvt will bring down all structures on forest 27. This month he said the same. We are waiting for you Gary . When are you coming? We do not want empty threats. Come quickly and start with Jack’s house only then go the the former speakers house and the former Veep’s house……..We are waiting to see if you are as strong as the real bulldozer…. Bowman Lusambo.
Also follow up on the PF secretariat where even a ground breaking ceremony was held on forestry land in woodlands. Clearly this was one of the illegal activities of the criminal party.
Raze down all ILLEGAL structures n send a resounding message so that we don’t have to go through this again in case the people elect another CRIMINAL party by accident.
We also need help in Kitwe Nkana East area. We have people constructing along Uchi stream and the stream is being buried.