| 600 000 trees planted, says commission
Herald Reporter ABOUT 600 000 trees have been planted ahead of National Tree Planting Day commemorations scheduled for December 4 in Mashonaland East. In an interview yesterday, Forestry Commi-ssion information and communications manager Mr Abednego Marufu said they had witnessed a “tremendous response” from the public on their call to plant trees since the beginning of the season two weeks ago. Environment and Natural Resources Mana-gement Minister Francis Nhema recently said they wanted at least one million trees planted before the commemorations and five million by the end of the season next year. Said Mr Marufu: “The target is very achievable because all over the country people are showing the desire to assist. “We are still to include figures from Mashona-land West and Midlands so this means the target can be realised if not surpassed. “Most of the seedlings are coming from us. We are trying our best to collect data, some may be hidden, but we are able to achieve our set target without any problem. “We have also agreed that trees be planted in protected areas like schools and Minister Nhema has given instructions to traditional leaders to facilitate this,” Mr Marufu said. He said Mashonaland East was leading the other provinces due to the high number of tobacco farmers in the area. Tobacco farmers are being encouraged to plant trees to replace those they chop down when they cure their crop. This year’s official tree is the bird plum, or “munyii” in Shona, or “umnyii” in Ndebele. |