Ministry Encourages Sustainable Forestry Management The Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperatives and Environment in Western Equatoria State has announced that the government is encouraging sustainable forestry management. 07 July 2013
By Joseph Nashion YAMBIO, 06 July 2013 [Gurtong] – The state director Johnson Ezibon said that the natural and plantation forests in the reserves constitute bigger wealth for Western Equatoria State and the country at large. The director insisted that the harvesting of forest products should also be based on sustainability by determining the number of trees harvested in a year in comparison for those planted in that particular year and the next years as well. He confirmed that the people should abide by the order put on teak logs transportations because there has not been any case of smuggling reported to his office. He further said that the government stopped this to put down other procedures of processing the logs into beams or assorted timbers in order to transport them outside the state. Mr. Ezibon disclosed that the ban of Teak logs or transportation was issued because the out growers failed to comply with the legal procedures to sell their products. He stated that the legal procedures requested the out growers to bring an application plus the buyer to the forest authorities who would verify from the local chiefs the true ownership of the teak plantation before giving permission to sell the products at a fixed price. Mr. Ezibon mentioned that all dealers including the out-growers are the law breakers. He said the government wants to concentrate on agro-forestry system by empowering the small farmers to integrate tree plantation after their food crops since they have seen the benefits of teaks. Mr. Ezibon announced that the state directorate of forestry had already started supporting agro-forestry with individual farmers in Ri-Rangu Payam who had planted five acres of teak last year. He added that soon they are going to begin an outreach program in Yambio, Nzara and Ibba counties for the first time to supply teak stamps to the small farmers at the cost of two South Sudanese Pounds. Mr. Ezibon named two functional government partners who are dealing with agro-forestry in the state which are Equatoria Teak Company in Nzara and Blue Lakes Company in Yambio. He pointed that in the agreement signed with these partners; they agreed to harvest and plant following the motto: cut one; plant five. He stated that in 2008, Equatoria Teak Company planted more than 148 acres of teaks before they could start harvesting from the government reserves. Meanwhile, Blue Lakes targeted 38 acres every year for three years. Posted in: Home, Governance -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14orn83xNc5-b%2BUNu%3Da5aADBc-PB7LXasakZAC2TocKu%2BGw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
