A COUNTRYWIDE tree-planting programme will start this month, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Professor Jumanne Maghembe, has announced.
Speaking during a meeting between him
and the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Environment
and Union, Mr January Makamba, Mr Maghembe also revealed that a joint
meeting of the two ministries will be held in Dar es Salaam starting
January 16.
The meeting will hammer out a strategy
to implement the tree planting campaign. Professor Maghembe, who headed
the water ministry, in the last government, explained the inseparable
link between water and life as he underscored the importance of the
planned campaign.
Water is the source of life and in its
natural and in pure form it provides natural minerals to all living
things; it brings life and protection using cells. The minister said
there has been extensive deforestation and degradation of the
environment, adding that the planned programme seeks to check
deforestation and degradation of nature and stabilize the ecosystem.
He said huge tracts of land have been
set aside for a forestation and environment protection with the aim of
protecting water sources, purifying air, increasing the amount of rain
in the country, reducing heat in the atmosphere and checking
desertification effects.
Minister Makamba said activities of all
ministries, public and private institutions have impact on environment,
adding that there is every reason for public and private sectors to
co-operate to protect environment.
He said the coming programme is one of
its kind, explaining that local authorities will enlist cooperation of
the people so that at the individual level people feel proud of planting
trees in their plots.
The minister said the overall aim and
expectations of the two ministries are to use this programme to effect
permanent change on nature so that after five years the benefits from
the scheme relating to forestation and nature protection will be
speaking for themselves.
“We are pushing for result-oriented
scheme so that after five years the results of this programme will be
obvious to all; there will be no need for anyone to speak for
themselves,” he said.
He said if the programme will be
implemented carefully and successfully, the results will win approval of
Tanzanians and outsiders for the good of this nation.
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