The sentiments were raised during a Panel Discussion held in Lilongwe on Thursday ahead of the World Environment Day which is to be commemorated at Namalomba Primary school in Balaka on Friday 5th June, 2015.
Members of the Association of environmental journalists in Malawi quizzed authorities on progress being made to stop the wanton cutting down of trees and what seems to be unstoppable encroachment of protected forests.
Emmanuel Muwamba a Media Practitioner with CISANET asked the forestry department on why it is failing collect K640 million from timber millers in chikangawa forests while the institution is struggling to finance its operations.
Assistant Director in the Department of forestry Ted kamoto said a lot is happening on the ground to contain the situation.
He further acknowledged the problem at hand and attributed it to limited resources and lack of awareness on the part of communities.
“The department has been struggling in the past years especially district offices which used to operate on a K30, 000 budget per month but has now improved to K100, 000 per month to cater for all forest related operations at district level. However that money is still not enough and we can hardly do anything tangible’ said Kamoto.
He also talked on the need to continuously engage communities and sensitize them on the need to conserve the environment.
On the uncollected money from Chikangawa Forest Kamoto disclosed that the department is struggling to collect the money because some people died before clearing up the process which was used in allocating plots to timber millers.
“Now we are exploring ways on how to recover the money either through lawyers or other means, but it is a complex situation.” Said Kamoto.
Chairperson for the Parliamentary committee on Natural Resources Werani Chilenga attributed the current mess in the environment sector to what he called “lack of seriousness”.
Chilenga also called for the review of the forestry ACT so that it carries stiff penalties for those found on the wrong side of the law.
“As law makers we are ready to pass laws and policies that are progressive on environmental management, our concern is only that those involved in formulating such laws are not so co-operative” chilenga said.
Acting Director in the Department of Environmental Affairs Taonga Mbale urged all players to unite in combating environmental injustice in the country.
Mbale said the department is doing its best and has good plans which are usually frustrated by lack of resources.
Other burning issues raised at the meeting touched on alleged corrupt practices by some forestry officials, involvement of the Army in protecting forests reserves and limited finances allocated to the management of the environment in Malawi.
Currently the environment sector received less than 1% of the total national budget and billions of kwacha are lost due to unsustainable use of natural resources.
Malawi’s forest cover stands at 28% with the northern region holding a greater part.
Malawi will commemorate the day with a theme: ‘Prevent Man Made Disasters -Use Natural Resources Sustainably’.
The meeting was organized by center for environmental policy and Advocacy , Environmental Affairs Department and the Association of environmental journalist in Malawi
