The government of Tanzania on Thursday appealed to the international community to assist in looking for alternative energy for refugees sheltered in the country to save the environment from further degradation.
Kangi Lugola, the Minister for Home Affairs, said there was massive felling of trees in areas resided by refugees, including western Tanzania, as a source of energy.
Speaking at the commemoration of World Refugee Day in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Lugola said an environmental assessment done in camps hosting refugees had shown a decrease of conserved areas from 74 percent in 1990 to 31 percent in 2016.
The minister said this decrease amounted to 50 percent of loss of trees that the refugees cut down for construction of their settlements, firewood and charcoal.
He said most of the refugee camps in the country were situated in conserved areas.
“To restore the degraded environment, the assessment proposed the planting of at least 20 million trees in the degraded areas,” said the official, adding that available statistics showed that only 18 percent of the 20 million trees had been planted between 2016 and 2018.
“Degradation of the environment done by the refugees is not something to ignore. I am therefore appealing to the international community to assist the government in looking for alternative energy for the refugees,” Lugola told his audience, including government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, UN agencies and international organizations.
However, Lugola restated Tanzania’s unwavering support to providing refuge to people who were fleeing war and persecution from their countries of origin.
He said by March this year, Tanzania was sheltering 81,153 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 188,753 Burundian refugees and 248 refugees from other countries.
Chansa Kapaya, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Country Representative for Tanzania, thanked Tanzania for its decades of generosity in caring for refugees by giving them shelter.
“Tanzania has proved itself many times over to be hospitable and welcoming to people fleeing conflicts in neighboring countries and further beyond,” said Kapaya.
World Refugee Day serves as a platform for UNHCR to communicate with the world about refugees, their need for international protection and the importance of finding sustainable solutions. (Xinhua)
