By Welington Sibale

Neno, July 6, Mana: Government has urged citizens in the country to engage young people to take a leading role in championing environmental conservation.

Principal Secretary (Administration) in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Richard Perekamoyo made the remarks on Friday in Neno during the joint commemoration of the World Biological Diversity and the World Environment Day.

He said failure to conserve the environment has adverse effects; hence, the need to engage the youth in various efforts considering that young people constitute a large population in the country.

“The youth are part and parcel of the development of Malawi and therefore, some of the programmes that we have planned, going forward, should involve the youth as active participants,” Perekamoyo said.

He said the event was aimed at raising awareness on the critical role of biodiversity in maintaining ecological balance, providing essential services and supporting human livelihoods.

The Principal Secretary said government was working on conducting civic education campaigns on the importance of conserving the environment so that people should get educated to change their behaviours towards nature.

“The challenge that we have is the competition for resources and people have to survive and they have to have livelihoods. Several initiatives have been put in place to make sure that people focus on meaningful ventures rather than going into the forest to cut down trees,” he added.

Perekamoyo called for collective efforts from all sectors including the private sector to address diverse effects of climate change.

District Commissioner (DC) for Neno, Rosemary Nawasha said the Council has devised several strategies and projects to make sure that they mitigate the cutting down of trees.

She said such interventions include tree planting.

“We are also discouraging charcoal production in totality. We have our forest guards making sure that those producing charcoal should be stopped because charcoal production is one of the activities that depletes trees,” Nawasha said.

The 2024 World Environment and Biodiversity Day focused on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.

Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

The event was held under the theme: “Be part of the plan. Our land, our future,” marking the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The International Day for Biological Diversity was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to increase the understanding and action for biological diversity. The day is globally commemorated on May 22 every year while the World Environment Day is commemorated on June 5.