National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi Warns of Rapid Deforestation
The National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) Executive Director Dyborn Chibonga said Tuesday that the country’s 2.8 percent rate of deforestation was alarmingly too high and requires urgent intervention.
Speaking during the launch of a tree-planting exercise held in the northern district of Mzimba, he said, the destruction of forests and woodlands in Malawi is on the increase compared to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and asks for serious action aimed at reversing the trend.
“We need an immediate solution to the malpractice because it has led to the rapid environmental degradation thereby reducing the country’s natural resources base to meet the present and future needs of the people” he said.
He added that if the trend is not reversed the country stood the risk of reduced food production, flash floods and devastation in water catchment areas.
He said that the major human, activities that contribute to deforestation in Malawi include charcoal burning, unnecessary cutting down of trees, bush fires and cultivation.
Source: pib.nic.in
NetNewsPublisher.com for Indian News
Category: Africa
