Zimbabwe’s environment minister has outlined plans for a national afforestation program that will see more than 60 million trees planted over the next 4-5 years, reports News Day.

Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said the program will see the “resuscitation of central nurseries throughout the country” and include the establishment of fruit trees, indigenous and exotic woodlots.

The program builds on the success of a forest restoration program in Mafanisa and Nana, Ntabazinduna, aimed at rehabilitating degraded land following the devastating 1992/1993 drought. Today local communities are “actively participating in the co-management of the woodlot protecting it from vandalism while deriving benefits such as fodder, firewood and grazing,” says the article.

“Efforts of this nature should be replicated in other parts of the country,” said Muchinguri-Kashiri, highlighting the value of agroforestry in improving soil fertility.

Read the full story: ‘We will plant 15 million trees in two years’