BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– The Eswatini Premier has joined the climate action campaign.
Eswatini Prime Minister His Excellency Cleopas Sipho Dlamini said countries need to take care of their forests if they want to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
He said this while leading a tree-planting campaign at Mafutseni Police Station this morning.
At least 30 indigenous tree seedlings were planted as part of an ongoing national tree planting campaign, under the theme of ‘One tree, One person and One Eswatini’.
The country has committed to plant 1.2 million trees as part of the campaign, in commemoration of International Forest Month.
“The importance of forests in our lives cannot be overstated; during these times when climate change effects continuously ravage our countries, prompting a need for countries to take care of the environment.
“We all know the importance of trees for our environment. Trees provide livelihoods to almost two billion people worldwide and more than 13 million of the people are employed in this industry. Tree planting in Eswatini was identified as one of the pillars for economic recovery strategies from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said His Excellency.
He further said he urged all emaSwati to ensure that indigenous trees were sustainably managed and not over-exploited, further saying science has taught them that good practices such as planting trees, curbing deforestation, and actively reforesting land are key components in combating climate change.
“As we are approaching winter, let us work together to prevent occurrence of destructive wild fires who are a serious threat to the forest industry. Climate change predictions indicate that Eswatini, like the rest of the region, will continue to get warmer and rainfall will continue to be uncertain and difficult to predict in a near distant future. Just in the recent weeks, the country experienced extreme weather events ranging from heat waves and storms which led to the destruction of crops and infrastructure leading to economic losses.
“His Majesty’s Government has therefore committed into taking climate action seriously to adapt to these climate extremes through engagement in activities like tree planting that will ensure community resilience towards these disasters.”
