Zomba City Council says it will soon start implementing by-laws that will encourage its residents to plant trees around their homes.

Zomba deputy Mayor Councillor Davie Maunde was speaking on Thursday on the sidelines of a tree planting exercise organized by Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO).

According to Maunde, previous by-laws of the city discouraged residents to plant trees as every tree was said to belong to the council.

“We had hiccups especially with our by-laws whereby all trees planted within the city belonged to the city council,” Maunde said.

The deputy mayor has since expressed gratitude with the amendment of such by-laws and he is optimistic that this will encourage its residents to plant more trees.

“We are glad that in our current by-laws we have managed to address those issues and once they are in force, we hope that it will encourage more people to plant trees.”