Newa has disclosed this today during the official launch of the Nkhata-Bay watershed restoration programme at Phwechi primary school in Group Village Head Lwafwa under Sub Traditional Authority (STA) Thula by FLORESTA, a member of Plant with Purpose Global Partnership.

He said, "Let me thank FLORESTA management for choosing Malawi specifically for piloting this programme in Nkhata-Bay. Be assured of our support as we know that the program will help us in achieving the pillars of Malawi 2063 development goals."

Board Chairperson for FLORESTA in Malawi, Judith Kamoto says their organisation values the Memorundum of Understanding with government to restore nature by planting trees in over 7000 hectares of Lwafwa river sub-water shed.

As FLORESTA, we are here in NKhata-Bay to empower communities to partake in environmental management and enable them to understand that when they destroy the environment, they are are also destroying their livelihoods,” said Kamoto.

Gracing the occasion, Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Michael Usi has urged communities in the district to spread the message about the importance of the environment so that everyone must be responsible in safeguarding it by taking ownership.

Usi threatened that government will take apply stiff measures on all those that will be found destroying forests by wantonly cutting down trees regardless of their status or position.

On her part, STA Thula says charcoal burning and timber milling have tremendously contributed to environmental degradation in her area making water bodies dry out and consequently resulting to poor livelihoods hence must be avoided.

The watershed restoration programme which according to Kamoto targets to complement government's effort in restoring about 4.5 million hectares of land in the next five years has been launched under the theme, "reforestation for flourishing and sustainable watersheds."