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The Herald, December 11, 1980
THE Minister of Natural Resources and Water Development, Senator Joseph Msika, yesterday received 3 000 eucalyptus seedlings from the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries in Salisbury as a contribution to the Government’s tree-planting programme.
Thanking the CZI president, Mr Reg Sampson, for the gift, the minister said the Forestry Commission was about to start several projects ranging from the planting of 1,5 million trees this rainy season to firewood scheme for Chitungwiza.
Senator Msika said the 3 000 seedlings were for rural distribution and the gift encouraged him to believe “that our appeal to the people to participate in our reafforestation plans will be successful”, reports Ziana.
The minister added that the Forestry Commission was always available to give advice to companies and individuals on all aspects of forestry, and the forest nursery had tree seedlings all the time.
Because of the importance of getting across to people the need for trees, he said, he was appealing to the CZI to place a small slogan in members’ advertisements, such as “Care for trees, your heritage”.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
- Trees are a natural resource that plays a significant role in our daily lives from providing firewood to giving us fruits, shed and conserving the soil amongst other things.
- Trees are a finite resource meaning we are cutting too many trees than those we are replacing. We need to scale up reafforestation as a country and as a global community.
- As a way of encouraging reafforestation, Government came up with the National Tree Planting Day in 1980. The day is observed during the first Saturday of December of each year and marks the start of the tree planting season which runs from the onset of the rainy season right up to the end in April.
- The national tree for this year is the Fever Acacia Tree which is also known by its botanical name: Vachellia xanthophloea.
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