PLANT TREES TO STOP DESERT

What you need to know:

In his 2016/17 budget speech, the Minister of State in the

President’s Office in charge of environment, Mr January Makamba, warned that already, 61 per cent of the country was in serious danger of turning into a desert.

Tanzania is fast losing its forest cover, thanks to unchecked

felling of trees. Reports show that between 1990 and 2010, the country lost 19.4 per cent of its forest cover or around 8.1 million hectares.

In his 2016/17 budget speech, the Minister of State in the

President’s Office in charge of environment, Mr January Makamba, warned that already, 61 per cent of the country was in serious danger of turning into a desert.

He attributed that to, among other things, the high demand of forest products, like the fact that over 90 per cent of energy used in Tanzania is from forests, with Dar es Salaam alone consuming between 200,000 and 300,000 bags daily! Which is to say, despite the stringent regulations and control measures, Tanzanians will continue using fuel wood and charcoal, what with the extortionate prices of gas and electricity.

Since the threat of Tanzania degenerating into a desert within the next 50 or is real, measures must be taken to stop desertification.

More controls to curb wanton felling of trees for charcoal burning and timber exports must be heightened. But most importantly, tree planting campaigns, like the one currently taking place in Handeni District, which is targeting to plant 30,000 this year, must be given more push and emulated elsewhere in Tanzania.