Namibian forests are increasingly under threat from various human activities. Chief Forester for the Kavango regions, Jonas Mwiikinghi, emphasised that the only way to restore what has been lost is for Namibians to actively engage in planting more trees.
The Directorate of Forestry practices and promotes the sustainable and participatory management of forest and botanical resources, but certain human activities are putting Namibia’s natural forests at risk.
“We are talking of illegal logging for timber; we are talking of clearing land for crop productions. The land is not expanding, the forest is not expanding, but the population is dynamic; it’s increasing, and our forest is under threat.”
The ministry has been donating plants from their nurseries. The idea is to encourage more Namibians to get into the habit of planting trees.
“We even donate to different government agencies and private entities and to individuals just to make sure that everybody participates in tree planting. For those who cannot afford it, we gift them. We even introduced tree planting in the villages, where we give trees to individual households just to plant in the backyard of their houses. If they cannot afford to buy a guava fruit, then they should get themselves a guava tree so they can taste the fruit.”
Out of all the trees to be planted locally, at least fifty percent should be indigenous.
“We have environmental problems with some of the exotic trees. They become invaders of the environment and eliminate our indigenous trees, which is not good for the environment. We are now promoting the planting of more indigenous trees than the exotic ones. However, we are not eliminating those good ones, even though they are exotic.”
The Chief Forester is advising Namibians to visit the ministry’s many nurseries countrywide for a variety of affordable plant species.
“Grab seedlings; plant them at home base. Just plant two. If you plant two every year, by the time it is ten years, you have 20 trees that you have contributed. If every Namibian plants two trees every year, how many trees will we have in two years? Something like five million.”
Trees provide food, shade, and clean air, and they make environments look beautiful, among many benefits.