Baobab trees can generate income and improve economy

The Musina Local Municipality, in partnership with the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, organized the Biodiversity Day Celebration with special reference to the baobab tree last Wednesday.

The event took place at Tshipise Tsha Sagole Youth Centre in Ward 10 of the Musina Municipality.

Celebrated under the theme Our Biodiversity, Our food, Our Health, the event focussed on how people around the Niani area can use the baobab tree to generate income and to improve their economic conditions.

Local community members and stakeholders, especially those who plant or collect baobab fruit and those who are interested in learning about bioprospecting (investigation on how plants can be commercially useful) attended the event.

Members of the local projects that deals with nature conservation and environmental awareness were also awarded appreciation certificates during the event.

The manager responsible for parks, waste management and recreation in the Musina Municipality, Ms Rendani Kutama, encouraged local community members to make full use of the natural resources, especially the baobab tree, to improve their lives. She also warned community members about the dangers of littering and burning waste in undesignated places.

Kutama said waste management was one of the key elements of taking care of the environment. “We need to adopt an environmentally friendly way of disposing waste.  One of the habits community members need to do away with is burning rubbish, as this causes air pollution and may lead to acidic rainfall, which will contaminate water, crops and land. Something as simple as lighting up a match to burn rubbish can cause problems as serious as environmental and health risks.”

She said the municipality was doing its best to help community members to dispose of waste responsibly. “We are aware that practices such as burning rubbish are common in some of our communities, hence we always help our community members by collecting rubbish every week and we always advise them to bury rubbish for compost-making purposes. We also make it a point that our community members know about recycling and advise them to make it a common practice.”

Todani Ndinanwi, whose non-profit organization, Keep it Clean Environmental Solutions, received a certificate of appreciation during the event, said that they were honoured that their hard work was being recognized. “This encourages us to work harder in taking care of our environment.”

News - Date: 10 June 2019

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