Eastern Province allocated about 40 million US dollars for forest programme.

Eastern Province has been allocated about 40 million United States dollars to implement the Zambia integrated Forest landscape programme.
The funding is from the United States, United Kingdom and Norwegian governments through the World Bank.
Ministry of Finance Mitigation Specialist, who is also in the interim climate change secretariat, Deuteronomy Kasoro says that Eastern is among other provinces that will implement the programme because of the high levels of deforestation which have negatively affected its climate.
He says the programme, which will also improve people’s livelihood, promote biodiversity conservation and management and capacity building is aimed at reducing deforestation.
Mr. Kasoro says that 30 million US dollars will go towards mission reduction for people who will be able to fully implement the program while 10 million dollars will go towards capacity building.
He explained that the interim Climate Change Secretariat has already started training various stakeholders, who are involved in issues to do with the environment, agriculture and wildlife before the initial programme starts early next year.
Mr. Kasoro has urged the Forestry Department to take advantage of the programme and implement their various programmes, since the funding to the department has been insufficient.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape workshop held in Chipata.