Angaliba Foundation Embark on Environmental Restoration

By: Andrew Cane Chilapondwa

As Malawi is going through the rough patch due to Climate Change resulted in the wanton cutting down of trees, Angaliba Foundation has embarked on tree planting exercise country wide.

The Foundation which planted more than 10 000 trees last year, had a tree planting exercise on Sunday afternoon at Matope Primary School in Ndirande Township.

The Foundation’s Board Chair Rodrick Mulonya said the decision to donate and plant trees at Matope Primary Schools was of bare ground around the area.

“If you look at the school, it has no trees so we thought that it could be the best to remind them that we donate and plant those trees and they should look after the trees.

The impact of this tree planting exercise is that everyone in Malawi is now planting trees. We would like to encourage Malawians to plant a Mango tree just like what we have done today,” he said.

He revealed that so far, 15 thousand trees have been planted by the Foundation since its inception.

“We have planted about 15 thousand Mango trees. We are targeting to plant more than 52 million Mango trees by 2021. Each tree is costing us K450-K500,” he explained.

In his remarks, Micheal Usi, said Culture has a role to play in restoring back the environment. He also urged Government to find an alternative in order for people to stop using firewood as their source of energy and serve the environment from total extinction.

“Issues surrounding climate in general, and trees in particular, are very important in the development of Malawi. You have seen that most of the places are bare because people are cutting down trees for firewood and they won’t stop if they don’t have alternatives.

As such, we need to replace the trees that have been cut down. We should encourage people to find ways of replacing firewood as their source of energy in order to serve the environment from total extinction,” he said.

Usi urged Malawians to take part in tree planting exercise in order to restore back the environment.

He further hailed Angaliba Foundation for putting more effort in trying to restore back the lost environment.

“They are looking at issues of national importance, in this regard, it’s the vegetation that attracts rains, they are showing us that every organization is critical in as far as contributing towards tree plantation in Malawi,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Foundation has promised to cover Malawi by planting more trees by 2021.