Youth Network project to plant 10m trees in schools

A local non-governmental organization – Youth Network for Adaptation and Climate Change (YNACC) – has embarked on an exercise to plant 10 million trees through Child to a tree project in schools of the country.

The network’s Executive Director, Rodwell Kachapila, said Wednesday during a kick-start of a project at Mphanje primary school in Lilongwe, the project allows a learner to plant a tree and be responsible over it.

“We would like pupils in our schools to plant a tree and take care of them until they are selected to secondary or have been transferred,” he said.

Kachapila said the project will provide 1, 000 seedlings to each school to allow students plant and take care of them.

Every learner, who has planted a tree, will be under supervision of a parent and a school head for a survival of a tree, he added.

Principal Forestry Officer in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Mary Chisale, described the exercise as very important in the conservation of trees.

“This is very good and encouraging program because children will start planting trees and know the values at a young age. The time they will reach secondary school, the learners will transfer a tree to another student who will also be equipped with the management aspect of taking care of a tree so that the can survive,” said Chisale.

According to her, in 2021, a tree survival rate was at 65 per cent.

In his remarks, the District Education Manager for Lilongwe Rural West, Rabson Kawalala, said communities have been lamenting on issues of climate change due to cutting down of trees.

“The project is important to us because we are optimistic that the trees will survive,” said Kawalala.

He, however, said his office will encourage school heads to recognize learners whose trees are doing well in order to motivate them.

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