The National Director of Forestry at the level of the Ministry of Land and Environment, Cláudio Afonso, revealed that Mozambique needs about 40 million dollars, for the execution of the biannual plan to increase actions for the protection, conservation and restoration of miombo woodland.
The information was revealed recently during a meeting to operationalize the Maputo Declaration on Sustainable and Integrated Management of the miombo forest.
According to the official, there is a need to provide more assistance to programs that contribute to the reduction of uncontrolled burning and ensure the protection of conservation areas.
“One of the ways to protect forests is to make communities earn more income and thus contribute to the preservation of forests”, he stressed.
On the same occasion, with regard to the meeting in general, Cláudio Afonso said that many consensuses were reached, but divergence prevailed on the model of raising resources to implement the actions foreseen in the Declaration.
However, as a way to gather more efforts, the source said that the ministers of Land, Environment and Forestry of southern African countries will meet in November in Dubai at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP-28) to take decisions on the Maputo Declaration.
In Mozambique, miombo represents about two-thirds of the forest area stretching from the north of Gaza province to the Rovuma River. In socio-economic terms, it benefits, directly or indirectly, 300 million people at SADC level, through the exploitation of mineral, forestry, agricultural, fishing, energy, tourism resources, among others.
In August 2022, Southern African leaders signed the Maputo Declaration for the protection and conservation of miombo woodland ecosystems in the region, an instrument that promotes “joint and integrated actions for the recovery and management” of the resources.
The two-day meeting (July 27 and 28) took place in Maputo City and was attended by members of the Mozambican government, national forest directors from 11 countries that have adopted the Declaration, cooperation partners, members of the Miombo Network and members of the Southern African Development Community secretariat.
