Trees contribute to city's aesthetic appeal'

Dlamini said this during a tree planting exercise at the MR3-Mangwaneni intersection.

The Speaker of Parliament, Prince Guduza, ministers, parliamentarians, Mbabane City Council’s CEO, Gideon Mhlongo and city councillors planted trees yesterday at the traffic circle, which will now be known as the SADCOPAC Garden after the sponsors, the Southern Africa Development Community of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC).

Minister Dlamini said trees help reintroduce important biodiversity lost or forced to migrate due to habitat loss.

She said those lost include, among others, Umkhanya-kude (Acacia Xanthophloae) a habitat for the now-extinct Emahlokohloko bird species.

"Due to high pressure of human activities and encroachment of alien plants, habitats are becoming rare and others are threatened with extinction. Some are already extinct," she said. Dlamini said this has been a trend in all the countries of the world. She said urgent measures were imperative to combat the erosion of indigenous plants.

She encouraged the municipality to implement programmes aimed at restoring and conserving natural biodiversity (specifically, indigenous plants).

She said the city would soon have its first natural reserve to conserve some of the rare plant species in Mbabane.

"This garden will, in future, serve as an educational site on the use of cultivated plants needing conservation and will be effective in raising public awareness on the plight of threatened plants in general," she said. Dlamini said she had no doubt that the garden would contribute massively in raising awareness on the conservation of indigenous flora, currently being promoted countrywide.

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