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MPs alarmed at destruction of forests, trees
2005-07-19 07:33:03
By Judica Tarimo, Dodoma
The government came under fire in Parliament yesterday over its failure to curb the wanton harvesting of forest products.
Several MPs said when debating the 2005/6 budget estimates of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism that forests were being cut down at an alarming rate and called on the government to do more to reverse the trend.
Ereneus Ngwatura (Mbinga North, CCM) said between 200 and 500 hectares of forests were cut down each year.
’Forests are being cut down at an extraordinary rate which is far higher than that of planting new trees,’ he said.
Ngwatura urged the ministry to put in place measures aimed at regulating the harvesting of forest products at the village and district levels with a view to curbing the destruction of forests.
’There is no supervision at all and our forests will be wiped out if urgent measures are not taken now’ the legislator said.
Dr John Singo (Hedaru, CCM) said the cutting down of forests was out of control in many parts of the country and added that the remedial measures should include the planting of trees in the worst-hit areas.
He said the ministry was not doing enough as far as afforestation of areas laid bare by wanton felling of trees was concerned.
’In her presentation, the minister failed to provide concrete data on the number of trees being planted…I think this is very important,’Dr Singo said.
MPs also asked the government to develop and promote tourism throughout the country instead of concentrating on a few areas.
Dr Thadeus Luoga (Mbinga West, CCM) said southern Tanzania had numerous tourist attractions which had been neglected and added that it was time the government put in place the required infrastructure with a view to attracting tourists to the areas.
’In the past, we could not develop tourism in the south of the country because of the liberation struggles in southern Africa but the situation is now calm.
I don’t understand why the government is still dragging its feet, the MP said.
Ngwatura said it was wrong for Tanzanians to view Mount Kilimanjaro as the country’s only sellable tourist site and added there was a need for the authorities to look at other attractions that were not officially recognised.
Hashim Saggaf (Dodoma Urban, CCM) said no serious efforts were being made to realise the country’s tourism potential and added that earnings from tourism were still \’very low’.
He said Turkey and Thailand earned about US$9bn and US$8bn respectively from tourism annually because the two countries had taken the trouble to publicise their attractions.
Even neighbouring Kenya earned much more from tourism than Tanzania, Saggaf said.
’In Kenya, tourism is the top foreign exchange earner. Just what is wrong with us?’ he wondered.
Presenting the opposition’s view, Philemon Ndesamburo (Moshi Rural, Chadema) told the House between 130,000 and 500,000 hectares of forests were laid bare annually through the illegal harvesting of forest products.
He said the government was also losing tens of millions of shillings through the illegal export of logs.
Tourism and Natural Resources Minister Zakia Meghji said when tabling the ministry’s budget that the programmes were in place to ensure community participation in sustainable protection and development of natural forests and tourist sites in the country.
She asked the House to endorse 55,442,163,500/-, out of which 22,471,839,500/- is for development and 32,970,324,000/- for recurrent expenditure.
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