FAILURE by government to operationalise the new Forest Act is said to be contributing negatively to the fight against deforestation in the country.
Some players in the forestry sector including Raiply Malawi Limited has since urged government to quickly gazette the new law and make it operational to effects the new fines which can help to fight deforestation.
Nathaniel Nthala who is a forestry Manager for Raiply Malawi said the delay to make the new Forestry Act operational continue to pose a threat to survival of some government owned forests.
He said in the old Act, most fines for illegal logging of trees range from K2,000 to K20,000 which is a small amount of money compared to the money which loggers fetch when they sell the tree products like charcoal and wood.
”Once operational, we believe the new Act can help to deter people from wanton cutting down of trees considering that most of them would be afraid by the stiff punishment contained in the Act. It is our hope that government moved in with speed to gazette the act,”he said.
For instance, Nthala said the new Act contains some strong provision such as confiscation of vehicle found transporting illegal tree products.
This he said can help to scare away possible loggers who will be afraid to lose their vehicles if they are caught.
Nthala’s sentiments were shared by several district forestry officers including for Mangochi, Dedza and Machinga who believes that the new act will make their work to protect forests easier.
For instance in Mangochi, some government owned forest reserves like Phililongwe, Mangochi and Namizimu are on the verge of extinction due to wanton cutting down of trees.
In the interview, Director of Forest and Natural Resources Stella Gama said government will soon roll out operationalization of the new Act.
Gama said the Act has recently has been gazette by parliament such that her Ministry is waiting for funding to start implementing it.
”As part of the implantation of the new Act, we intend to print several copies of the A ct in different local languages to help raising awareness of the punishment contained in the Act among Malawians,”she said.
She also assured the key stakeholders in the sector that the government will start implementing the fines and provisions provided in the new Act by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, Gama says the Ministry has lined up several sensitization campaign to enlighten members of the community on the new Act to ensure that people are aware of the new fines.
The Daily Times_July 15, 2020_2020_Yohane Symon