By Pemphero Malimba:
Natural Resources and Climate Change Minister Owen Chomanika has disclosed that the ministry is considering engaging the Ministry of Defence and Malawi Defence Force (MDF) to review a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that allows the MDF to safeguard the country’s forest reserves.
Chomanika said this during parliamentary deliberations in Lilongwe on Friday.
He was responding to a question raised by Kasungu North Member of Parliament Mike Bango.
Bango wanted to know if the ministry could strike a deal with the MDF to protect the forests.
He gave the example of Chimaliro Forest, saying people had descended on it for charcoal production.
“Having permanent MDF deployment in Chimaliro Forest and others will help to control the destruction of forests,” Bango said.
He said, currently, the implementation of the MoU was costly in the management of forest reserves.
The MOU was signed in 2007.
“Looking at [terms of] the MoU, it [the MoU] is not sustainable because it is costly to have the MDF [personnel] deployed to a forest reserve and keep them there for sometime. Almost all our forestry reserves are under attack because deforestation is happening. As such, we need to discuss [the issue] because the issues are also about logistics and operations and how they are tackled,” he said.
The legislator said, for example, that manning a forestry reserve required the ministry to spend K18 million a week.
He said it was concerning that the country was continuing to experience high levels of deforestation.
“Despite all the efforts that we have been doing, we are losing forest cover and that is very dangerous. Research has shown that if we are not careful, by 2079, Malawi will be a bare ground,” he said.
He said in the case of the Chimaliro forestry reserve, ministry officials managed to confiscate 1,300 bags of charcoal on a single day, which shows how concerning the situation is at the moment.
In response, Chomanika said the ministry was also considering amending legal frameworks to arm forestry guards.
“The legal framework does not protect forestry guards that much. Some have died in the course of protecting the [forest] reserves, some are using wheelchairs. We, therefore, need to arm them,” he said.
He said, soon, the ministry would finalise recruitment processes of 1,500 forest guards to help in manning the country’s forests.
There are 88 forest reserves in the country.
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