Minister of Environment and Forestry Josephine Napwon (middle/dark suits), Western Bahr el Ghazal Governor Sarah Cleto (blue shirt) and other officials pose for a picture at a teak plantation area in Wau. | Photo: Sarah Cleto Office.

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry on Monday announced plans to revive national teak reserve plantations across the country.

Josephine Napwon revealed the initiative in a visit to Wau city in Western Bahr El Ghazal State to assess the status of teak reserves in the area.

Minister Napwon led a team of technocrats to assess ways to correct damages to vegetation through tree planting in the area.

According to Napwon, there are about 13 Teak Plantations Reserves in Western Bahr el Ghazal ten of which have been deforested.

The official says most of the plantations were destroyed during the war for independence and as well as during the 2013 and 2016 conflict.

She was speaking to the media upon arrival at Juba International Airport yesterday.
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“We are planning to rehabilitate all our national teak plantations so that we can do something for the next generation coming after us,” Napwon said.

“So the main objective was to assess the status of our national forest and Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal is one of the state that has got good number of national reserve forest plantation.”

“So we visited some of these plantations and we found out that out of 13, almost 11 or 10 is actually in bad condition.”

In March 2022, the governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal called on residents in the state to stop random cutting of trees without planting replacements.

Sarah Cleto advised the people to protect the environment and be vigilant about the damaging consequences of climate change.

Trees are proven to be beneficial to the environment as they prevent strong winds from destroying houses and properties during storms.

In June 2021, President Salva Kiir also urged members of the public to fight environmental degradation.

He condemned environmental pollution by unregulated human activities, notably the cutting of trees for charcoal burning – which partly contributes to climate change.