Morogoro — THE Minister for Natural R e s o u r c e s and Tourism, Mr Mohamed Mchengerwa, has directed the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI) and the Tanzania Forest Service Agency (TFS), to join forces with the Office of the Vice -President (Union and Environment) to sensitise tree planting campaign in the country.
Minister Mchengerwa issued the directives to the two institutions in Morogoro during the inauguration of the 12th TAFORI Board of Directors, recently.
Mr Mchengerwa insisted that efforts must go hand in hand with teaching peo- ple on best ways of conserving the environment.
He said the statistics show that 469,420 hect- ares of forest are destroyed annually and hence, this raises the need for adapting various afforestation measures to curb the ongoing destruction of forests in the country.
"If every individual citi- zen, in urban or rural areas, can plant trees, it means we can have millions of new trees...come up with a framework which will motivate both, adults and even students to plant trees regu- larly to serve our environment ," he said.
Mr Mchengerwa noted that the main cause of deforestation in different parts of the country is encroachment in some for- est reserve for agriculture, livestock grazing, mining, settlements, cutting trees for cooking energy, lumbering timbers and construction poles.
To support the countrywide tree planting campaign, Mr Mchengerwa said that currently, there is a produce seedling to achieve the campaign for every Tanzanian to plant trees in their residential and working areas.
For her part, the TAFORI Board Chairperson, Professor Verdiana Masanja, insisted the ministry to inject more funds for financing research so as to have informed decisions which would lead to right intervention.
Professor Masanja urged the government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, to consider increasing the research budget to enable more research to be con- ducted, which would help to come up with scientific suggestions and methods to encourage more tree planting.
