By Seedy Jobe
The Minister of Environment, Climate Change, and Natural Resources, Rohey John Manjang, has said that neither public officials nor private individuals have the authority to approve the felling of trees outside a legally mandated, multi-tiered process.
Speaking on Seen FM’s “Fanoketa” program on Friday, May 15, 2026, Ms. Manjang outlined a structured approval system designed to prevent arbitrary or unauthorized tree cutting across the country.
“A forest officer alone cannot authorize the cutting of a tree. Even I, as minister, cannot approve it independently,” she said. “It is a process.”
According to the minister, the procedure begins with a forest officer, who must complete and sign the necessary documentation on behalf of the applicant. The request is then reviewed sequentially by the Alikalo (village head), the district chief, and the regional governor before reaching the department’s director.
The director, she explained, provides technical advice to the ministry, but that recommendation is not final. “Even the director’s advice is not conclusive, and my advice alone is not conclusive either,” Ms. Manjang said, emphasizing the layered nature of the approval system.
She added that her office cannot act in the absence of properly submitted documentation from lower administrative levels. “If the director does not bring the documents forward, I cannot simply authorize the cutting of a tree,” she said. “That authority does not rest with me alone.”
Ms. Manjang stressed that the regulations apply uniformly nationwide, regardless of location or land ownership.
“No one is permitted to cut down trees without following the legal process—whether on private property, farmland, or in forested areas,” she said. “These procedures are mandatory for everyone.”
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