Dedza Youth Joins Climate Change War

By Lackson Kanyoza

The Youth in Dedza district have joined the war against climate change by embarking on a tree planting exercise in an effort of conserving the environment.  They have planted 4000 pine trees on a three hector piece of land at the foot of Dedza Mountain.

The exercise which took place on Friday was organised by Youth Initiative for Community Development (YICOD) during Dedza youth tree planting day.

Speaking during the exercise, the director for YICOD, Andrew Bwanali bemoaned the increasing cases of carelessly cutting down of trees in the mountains.

“The youth are the ones who are mostly affected by the effects of climate change. There is a need to have a collective effort among the youths and all the institutions in the district,” said Bwanali.

He also encouraged his fellow youth both in and out of school to take part in conserving the environment.

He also urged all Malawians to stop gratuitous cutting down of trees and embark on tree planting instead.

Deputy Forest Officer Blessings Chingaipe commended the youth and all the participating groups for the initiative citing that planting trees is one way of reducing the impact of climate change and all the problems associated with it.

“Our office is looking for a proper co-ordination and working hand in hand with other government departments, the council, NGOs and the community,” said Chingaipe.

The councillor for the area who was also the guest of honour during the exercise Mr Davie Lingalawo, pledged to support the youth and the forest department in looking after the trees.

He also expressed concern that while they are involved in tree planting but when it comes to harvesting, they are sidelined.

This comes barely weeks after the Malawian president Peter Mutharika urged all Malawians to combat climate change by planting trees.

Both Public and private secondary schools namely Umbwi, Katsejaminga, Mchisu, Dedza Star, Gonapamuhanya, Dedza CCAP Secondary School, government officials, NGOs and media personnel took part in the exercise.