Government through the Forestry Department has commended businessperson for planting pine trees on 120 hectares of land.
Officials from Forestry Headquarter visited the 120 hectares of Pine trees at Kavuzi.
Chief Forestry Officer responsible for Management of Forest Reserve on Natural Woodlands and Plantations Patricia Masupayi who led the team said Government appreciated the good work that Kaweche is doing and the department will help him in any aspect.
“We are here to appreciate and learn what Mr Kaweche is doing to establish his own plantation of pine trees, this is because Government is promoting such initiatives since the demand for timber and other products from the Forestry is high and yet the tree resources in Government plantations is going down so we want to encourage Mr Kaweche on what he is doing and also possibly learn so that we can promote this to other individuals or companies or even communities,” she said.
Masupayi added that Government has come up with some approaches of encouraging individuals or communities to engage in forest management.
He mentioned an initiative called adopted Forestry approach where the Government ask people to engage in forest management right from seed production, planting and management as a whole.
In his remarks, Kaweche, a Mzuzu based businessman and Timber seller, said he started the forest in 2016.
“I bought some land and seedlings and planted these trees, and I am expecting to start harvesting in 2026. I am a businessperson and my biggest business is selling timber and I wish to continue this, let me encourage those who want to venture into plantations that let them come and ask me I am ready to help them,” he said.
Kaweche further asked Government to help him by providing more seedlings and other materials to achieve the goal.
Apart from planting pine trees, Kaweche also helped Government by creating jobs and at the moment more than 35 workers are working under the project.
