Church partners govt on climate change 

Source: Church partners govt on climate change – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY KENNETH NYANGANI
THE Anglican Diocese says it has partnered with government on a sustainable forestation programme to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Over the past years, rainfall patterns have become increasingly unpredictable and erratic and droughts have become more frequent.

Climate change has hit hard, particularly the agricultural sector, threatening food security and hurting the country’s poor and vulnerable.

Anglican Church Manicaland Diocese education secretary Edmond Samutereko said they had donated tree seedlings to various entities such as the Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital in Mutare as part of its forestation programme.

“We had a clean-up campaign and tree-planting event at Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital. As a church, we have five marks of mission, one of them is stewardship of the environment,” Samutereko said.

“We had a tree-planting and clean-up event to demonstrate to the world that as a church, we support and encourage the cleanliness of the environment.

“As a church, we are promoting tree planting to curb effects of climate change. As a church, tree planting is one of our key thematic areas strategies.  Zimbabwe has been affected by climate change as seen in erratic
rainfalls.”

Zimbabwe’s forest and woodland resources are under increasing threat from the expansion of agriculture, urbanisation and local use for construction and fuelwood.

According to the Forestry Commission, Zimbabwe loses about 330 000 hectares of forests annually.