Samantha Chigogo Herald Correspondent
Schoolchildren and communities should be conscientised on the importance of tree planting every year as part of Government’s initiatives to encourage communities to preserve nature countrywide, an official has said.
This comes as TreeEco environmentalists, successfully engaged children at Danckwerts Primary School in Harare in a tree planting programme meant to support the national tree planting initiative as well as raise awareness on climate change and its effects.
The children planted more than 100 indigenous and fruit trees on Friday that were selected on their usefulness and hardiness including mango, paw paw, moringa, orange and crotons.
Speaking at the event, TreeEco managing director Mr Jos Danckwerts, said investing in the environment was a top priority for the country.
“In light of National Tree Planting Day, we decided to engage the young as we feel that they are the future and they need to have a culture of caring for the environment,” he said.
“We also involved the children and their school authorities in educational talks over tree conservation, which was later followed by the planting of trees as well as practical lessons of planting of trees and methods of caring for them.”
Mr Danckwerts said the organisation was working closely with several environment stakeholders including the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe where it donated 1000 trees as part of its contribution towards National Tree Planting Day.
“We have grown over 200 000 trees that are both indigenous and some fruit trees, which will be distributed across the country with special target in areas where deforestation is rampant,” he said.
“Our bigger goal is to help mitigate the effects of climate change and planting more trees is the only solution as they have multiple long lasting benefits, which are a vital tool in curbing challenges of climate change and poverty.”
Mr Danckwerts said the organisation would continue strengthening partnerships with the Zimbabwe National Parks in the protection of orphaned elephants.
“We have an elephant orphanage which is an ambitious long term project to save abandoned elephants and show the world that elephants are an important part of the country’s heritage that needs to be preserved,” he said.
The National Tree Planting Day seeks to educate people on the importance of preserving the environment through ensuring that a person plants at least one tree every year.
Zimbabwe loses about 330 000 hectares of forests every year due to deforestation.