Luapula PS underscores importance of data collection on forests

——-Luapula Province Permanent Secretary, Chanda Kasolo, has underscored the role that the collection of data on forests plays in reversing deforestation in the country.

Mr Kasolo says the Integrated Land Use Assessment revealed that Zambia was losing over 250,000 hectares of forests per year hence the need to collect data that ensures well informed actions aimed at reducing deforestation.

ZANIS reports that the Permanent said this in a speech read for him by the Assistant Secretary, Joshua Kamanya, during the flagging off of Field Data Collection Officers under the Integrated Land Use Assessment Program in Mansa yesterday.

The Permanent Secretary observed that globally, deforestation accounts for one-fifth of human-induced emissions of carbon dioxide, a scenario he said calls for concerted efforts which include collection of data in order to come up with effective tools to fight deforestation.

Mr Kasolo said the aim of the Integrated Land Use Assessment Program Phase Two is in line with government’s policies on environmental and natural resources development as outlined in the Sixth National Development Plan.

The Integrated Land Use Assessment Program is a Program aimed at building capacity of the Forestry Department to implement and maintain continuous forest assessment among others and has so far collected data in Lusaka, Copperbelt, Eastern, Muchinga, Northern and North Western, Provinces.