STEP UP REFORESTATION TO SAVE PLANET EARTH

Experts reveal startling data when it comes to the rate of deforestation in Tanzania. Literature has it that the country loses at least 400,000 hectares of forests annually.

All this is against the backdrop of the fact that only about 40 percent of land in Tanzania is currently forested.

All the above point to one reality – it may not take that long before Tanzania loses all its forest cover.

And when that happens, there will be significant adverse impact on the economy, social life, and development in general.

According to researchers, during the relatively short period from 1990 to 2010, Tanzania lost 19.4 percent of its forested land, or around 8 million hectares.

This calls for immediate action by each and every person in Tanzania. It is time to walk the talk to ensure that the trend is reversed as soon as conceivably possible.

Speaking during an event organised to mark this year’s National Tree Planting Day in Magu District, Mwanza Region, Tanzania Forest Services Agency chief executive officer Dos Santos Silayo said the entity was planning to set up in the district a huge nursery for various tree species.

This is part of efforts to restore vegetation cover in various places in the Lake Zone.

He added that the Lake Zone had lost a sizeable area of its natural vegetation since the end of the Second World War.

Pertinent questions need to be asked about this unfortunate and alarming trend, and Natural Resources and Tourism deputy minister Mary Masanja asks some of these questions.

She poses: Why isn’t Tanzania getting enough rains nowadays? Why are water resources drying up? Why have firewood and trees used in building houses become scarcer?

Surely, each person should plant a tree as a matter of urgency, and all should go for recycled products, and recycle them. In addition, awareness should be raised throughout the country.

The government, as the main policy maker and enforcer, needs to play a bigger role in ensuring that deforestation stops, and reforestation takes place nationwide.

CURB HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human smuggling and trafficking is a matter of concern in eastern and southern Africa, and calls for joint efforts to tighten security. Tanzania has not been immune to the problem, and taking into account the country’s long borders and many clandestine routes, it is important that security is boosted along the common borders.

Because of the presence of police patrols on major highways, illegal immigrants usually travel in vehicles that lack ventilation. They are often camouflaged. Such operations are closely coordinated and monitored by local agents of human traffickers.

Border communities must be encouraged to be vigilant so as to detect and report suspect strangers to local authorities. We also suggest the naming and shaming of dishonest immigration officials who condone human trafficking.

The government should go further, and prosecute the agents who collude with the human traffickers before it moves to punish corrupt immigration officers.

Illegal immigrants can and often do pose great danger to local people, and this has been evident in some neighbouring countries in recent years.