Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) Eastern Zone office is planning to plant a total of 60 hectares of bamboo trees in North Ruvu Forest in Coast Region for the coming year 2022.
This move targets to address high dependency of trees from natural forests, which leads to environment destruction. Conservator for the North Ruvu Forest Plantation Ms Heavenlight Kizito said during an interview that the office had started to plant bamboo trees in the forest from year 2015, and that up to this year, more than 230 hectares have been planted.
“There is high dependency of trees in our forests which to large extent is affecting the environment. “We started to plant bamboo trees which take three to seven years from planting to harvesting. We also teach individuals how to plant them and protect the environment,” Ms Kizito.
Ms Kizito said that apart from taking short time to mature, bamboo trees need little water to grow compared to most trees and they are draught resistant. The trees are also used in construction activities and for making different furniture.
They are also used for feeding animals and they are good in preventing soil erosion. She mentioned that they have already started harvesting the trees from the plantation, whereby in the first phase, they are expecting to harvest 24, 000 poles which will be sold to individuals.
North Ruvu Forest has an area of 31,930 hectares and is located between two districts of Kibaha and Bagamoyo. It is surrounded by 21 streets, 11 in Kibaha district and other 10 in Bagamoyo district.
