By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Harare City Council, in partnership with the Friends of the Environment and Nyaradzo Group, has planted 600 trees at Warren Hills cemetery as a way of promoting the Green City Initiative and forest creation in Zimbabwe.
Council’s chief parks and cemeteries officer, Mr Godfrey Batsirai Munetsi, said Harare City Council is working on a greening and beautification policy aimed at enhancing the quality of environment through active planting, proper maintenance and preservation of trees and vegetation.
“We are targeting 700 trees. We want to balance the exotic and indigenous trees in Harare.
“We are creating green places in cemeteries to mitigate climate change while partnering with other stakeholders,” he said.
Speaking at the tree planting occasion, the administration manager for Friends of the Environment (FOTE) Mrs Patience Fusire said they were championing the re-greening of Zimbabwe through tree planting at a national level.
“Today marks the start of a long journey in the creation of forests with a total of 600 trees planted just as a launch of the many tree-planting activities,” she said.
Mrs Fusire said their goal is to address deforestation, and plant more trees with a target of 500 million trees by 2026.
“Consequently, FOTE aims to champion the afforestation cause in a holistic way by planting trees at a national level.
“The goal is to address deforestation and the main objective is to plant 500 million trees by the year 2026,” he said.
Source: All Africa
