Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) will plant less number of Mulanje cedars during this year’s tree planting season as compared to previous year due to inadequate funds.

MMCT environmental education and communications officer, Kondwani Chamwala, said they are ready to plant about 200, 000 Mulanje cedars as compared to 400,000 Mulanje cedars planted during the previous season.

Chamwala said during the previous season the conservation trust had a full project which specially focused on restoration of Mulanje cedars in Mulanje Mountain which is not the case this year.

He said, “This season we are also ready to plant Mulanje cedar tree but the only difference is that this time the number of trees to be planted has decreased to about 200, 000 from 400, 000 that was planted during the previous season.”

Chamwala further said this year more trees will be planted around the communities in Mulanje in addition to the ones that will be planted in Mulanje Mountain.

He added that NMCT is currently working with traditional leaders to identifying the community members whom they will work with during the tree planting season.

In a related development Chamwala revealed that there are some experts who have shown interest to conduct an experiment to find out if Mulanje cedar tree can be used for making perfumes and other products due to its fine scent.

Mulanje cedar was declared as Malawi’s national tree in 1984 but it is currently being cut down at an unsustainable rate.