Government urged on environmental protection laws
February 16, 2016 (YEI) – The Organisation for Socio-economic Transformation (OSET), a civil society entity in South Sudan’s Yei River state has urged government to set up strong laws that protects the country’s natural and artificial forests from lumbering.
He strongly advocated for a re-a forestation policy, which would encourage replanting of tress cut to avoid a looming desertification in future.
Research indicates that most natural and artificial forest reserves in South Sudan are undergoing massive destruction without any form of replacements.
According to Malish, the policy document being developed will be forwarded the various ministries of agriculture and forestry for adaptation.
“When we talk about the environment we mean a lot. The environment needs to be protected in many ways. Therefore we OSET as an organisation to lobby for policies to be put in place to regulate the environment of our country,” said Malish.
He added, “We have been seeing our forest within Yei county and Yei municipality getting depleted because of too much cutting and there is no replacement for that effect. This is a very dangerous trend that we are getting in if we have not put in place replacement for the forest that we are cutting then we are seeing danger in the future”.
Malish blamed government for failing to develop guide lines to regulate timber companies from exhausting forest plantations without re-planting.
“Until now we have not seen the government through the ministry of agriculture putting in strong laws implementing policies on environmental protection. As an organisation we want to see that cutting one and plant at least three is practically seen,” stressed the OSET program manager.
“The government should not be collecting money leaving these people dealing in timber business walking away without practicing reforestation”, he added.
The officials further urged local authorities of Yei town to develop mechanisms to protect and ensure citizens maintained environment clean.
“We don’t want to see that government collects money from the business people without setting clear policies on proper waste management”, he said.
David Taban, assistant commissioner for forestry in the state, welcomed the move by the civil society entity in advocating for environmental laws.
The forestry department, he said, has been carrying out awareness among people on tree planting in residential areas and open up tree farms for investment.
He said the state had embarked on quality forest management as an alternative source of raising revenue for service delivery, stressing that the department recruited over 100 casual workers to prune and do clearance.
“Currently, we are working on Kagelu which has got more than 20 compartments and Kajiko with 27 compartments. Currently we have 121 labour force but most of them are aged and not able to do an effective work,” said Taban.
He however appealed to the South Sudanese government to support forestry ministry.
(ST)