The Eastern Equatoria State Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, with support from development agencies, on Friday launched a program to plant 10 million trees to mitigate the effects of climate change in the state.
The program also aims to increase public awareness and spur the local plantation and conservation of trees and has a target of planting ten million trees over the next five years from 2022 to 2027 through the engagement of all stakeholders.
Placid Kok Komakech, the Eastern Equatoria State minister of agriculture and environment, said planting trees is a national agenda and called on stakeholders to develop action plans to create more awareness.
“By launching the planting of 10 million trees in Eastern Equatoria, the state is contributing to the national agenda of our country of planting 100 million trees to mitigate aspects of climate change and to combat desertification,” he said. “The national government has taken the lead to ensure the obligation and the awareness creation to enhance coordination among stakeholders in order to develop an action plan.”
“It is now incumbent upon us to reinforce guidelines and laws to control desertification by incorporating programs of combating desertification in our budget annually,” he added.
Minister Komakech urged the local population to embark on tree planting for a healthy environment and said that planting fruit trees will help generate income and foster self-reliance.
“In your plot, you are supposed to plant two to three trees including a lemon or Mango tree. Those are good shade trees. Also, we need to go a little bit further by leaving the town and getting land where we can plant teak trees to make money,” he advised. “If you plant teak now in two hectares, in five years you will be self-reliant and do not even need to work for anybody. So, let us all embark on tree planting to improve our environment. Let us plant fruit trees and shade trees within our homestead for a healthy life. Let us plant trees for a beautiful environment.”
Meanwhile, Anna Itwari, the director general in the state ministry of agriculture and forestry, warned that the indiscriminate felling of trees would cause desertification and encouraged people to plant fruit and shade trees.
“Desertification is caused by deforestation and we are doing a lot of that in our state. There is a lot of tree cutting, whether legally or illegally, and there is no corresponding tree plantation going on,” she said. “Since our environment is our life, what we give, it gives us better. When we cut one tree, we must plant five trees.”
For his part, Aye Joseph Oswaha, the mayor of Torit Municipal Council, said the municipality has issued a two weeks ultimatum for all plot owners to clean their plots and plant trees.
“Let us improve Torit by cleaning all land spaces, institutions, plots, streets, and roads in residential areas. Everybody should clean their plot. You have to divide the road in front of your houses,” he said. “We have given you two weeks and if these two weeks are done, I will take another step. We shall move to the residential areas after four to prove that trees have been planted in homes and all roads are clean.”
M.D. Tafiqul Islam, the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Torit field office, applauded the state agriculture ministry for initiating tree planting and said it will help reduce flooding and drought.
“I would like to appreciate the state ministries of agriculture, environment, and forestry in Eastern Equatoria for initiating tree planting,” he said. “South Sudan has been suffering from the impacts of climate change such as drought, flood, rising temperature, etc., and planting trees to mitigate the effects of these changes is the viable option.”