20 Mar 2017

Department of Forestry & Range Resources (DFRR) and Gaborone City Council have under taken an initiative of planting indigenous trees for environmental conservation.

The initiative resulted in the two institutions embarking on a tree-planting mission in Gaborone on March 17 with the intention to make the city green.

Trees were planted at the government enclave and the New CBD next to the Three Dikgosi Monument and they include Morojwa, Mogorogorwana, Mmilo, Modutu, Moswakaphala, Motsentsela, Mokhukhumo, Monepenepe and Maragoabahumagadi.

Speaking at the event, forestry & range resources director, Dr Mmasera Tsuaneng said planting of indigenous trees would also help the upcoming generation to know them.

“Our intention is to turn the open space at the government enclave into a park filled with indigenous trees. We want to show people that a park can be decorated with indigenous trees since most of the existing parks in Botswana are decorated with non-indigenous trees,” she said.

She added that the park would also serve as a learning area for the upcoming generation to learn about the country’s indigenous trees.

She appealed to members of the community not to destroy them.

Ms Tshepo Bakane, a senior forest & range resource officer, said tree-planting initiative was key in reducing the impact of climate change on the environment.

She said it was fit to plant indigenous trees to show people that they could also respond well to the changing climate.

In an interview, the public relations officer in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, MS Lorato Mongatane said tree re-generation was their priority as it helped to conserve, maintain and preserve forests.

She further said FCB manages the Tropical Forest Conservation Fund, which supports communities, individuals and research institutions on issues of forest conservation. ENDS