European Union (EU) Ambassador to Malawi, Marchel Gerrmann, has advised Malawi to develop comprehensive strategies to address population growth so that the nation is able to protect its forest reserves.
The ambassador made the remarks on Wednesday when he led people in a tree planting exercise in Kadzungu Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Kamenyagwaza, Dedza District.
He said the forest conservation and tree planting initiatives will not be effective if broader issues will not be tackled.
“One of the social economic issues facing Malawi is rapid population growth. With this kind of population growth it is almost impossible to protect the forests,” Gerrmann said.
Gerrmann suggested various ways of addressing population growth such as investing in girl child education to reduce early marriages.
On his part, Director of Forestry, Clement Chilima, also said rapid population growth has contributed to wanton cutting down of trees.
Since 1997, EU has been supporting the forestry sector, where over 25 million trees have been protected and 1.3 million extra trees have been planted.
EU invested in the project ‘Empowering Forest Dependent Communities through Commercialisation of Small scale Forestry’, which aims at enhancing community involvement in management and commercialisation of local forest resources, empowering them to take greater ownership of their resources and utilise them to develop sustainable enterprises.
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