30 Oct 2017

Palapye sub-council chairperson, Mr Lesedi Phuthego says forests and trees are a direct source of food and income for more than a billion of the world’s poorest people, providing both staple and supplementary foods such as fruits, edible leaves and nuts.

Mr Phuthego said this during the central district tree planting day in Maunatlala recently. 

He said in the country about 80 per cent of the rural people depended on these resources for the provision of goods and services especially firewood which most people relied on for the provision of energy.

Mr Phuthego said forests would become more important now, in view of their role in mitigating the impacts of climate change. 

He said forests were often described as the “lungs of the earth” because they purified the air by trapping dust and toxic gasses like carbon dioxide which were harmful to lives and offered purified oxygen that people breathed.

He said current scientific climate change predictions were that the Southern African region to which Botswana was part, would become dryer with more frequent droughts, have erratic rainfall patterns, rising sea levels with increased incidences of floods and cyclones.

He said the impacts of climate changes were already being experienced in the country as evidenced by the reduced rainfall patterns and frequent droughts.

Given these scenarios, he said, it was apparent that trees were needed and more should be planted, hence the need for a tree planting day.

Mr Phuthego highlighted that the commemoration of the national tree planting day was a call from government for all Batswana to reflect on the roles of trees and forests, their value and to plant trees in the working and living environment as a practical and symbolic gesture to conserving the environment.

He said the recognition of the value of forests in the country has led to the development of policies and programmes to address the conservation and sustainable management of such resources.

He said of particular relevance was the Forest Policy which was approved by Parliament in October 2011.

The purpose of the forest policy is to among other things ensure that the forests and woodlands were managed in ways that promoted their continued existence so that they could benefit not only the present generation but the future generation too.

The policy further calls for collective responsibility of all stakeholders towards sustainable conservation of the forest resources.

This year’s district tree planting day was celebrated under the theme, Forests and water: sustaining lives and livelihoods.

Mr Phuthego said the theme validated the contribution of the forests to food security and the most direct way in which forests and trees contributed to food security .

He said many rural households depended on forests and farm trees for food, medicines, fuel for cooking and fodder for livestock and other forest by- products which could be sold for income generation. 

Mr Phuthego encouraged the nation to continue planting trees like mogotlho/mokala and sustain management of natural resources as they were key to food security.

He also called upon the present generation to use the natural resources wisely bearing in mind that the future generation needed them for the development too.

This year, the tree which was chosen was acacia erioloba commonly known in Setswana as mogotlho/ mokala. 

It occurs in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The tree is very common in the Kgalahari desert, Moremi and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. ENDS