The mandate of the Ministry of Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation is to rehabilitate degraded land, provide policy and strategic direction as well as review, develop and implement legal frameworks in the areas of forestry, soil and water conservation and range resources management. In its efforts to effectively implement this mandate, the Ministry is expected to create employment opportunities for local communities.

VISION: Lesotho's land shall well be well-managed, characterized by rehabilitated rangelands and gullies, continuous flow of fresh and clean water, covered with indigenous vegetatin complemented by desirable exotics and able to provide ecosystems services.

MISSION: The Ministry is commited in protecting and rehabilitating the physical environment through afforestation, range management resources, control of soil erosion and harvesting of water in order to enhance means of livelihoods of local communities.

Key functions of the ministry

To reclaim the beauty of Lesotho in the areas of forestry, range and soil and water conservation to address the problem of land degradation. The responsibilities of the Ministry are to conserve soil and water, harvest water, and manage rangeland, grow trees and create employment to combat poverty.

Key Goals

To increase the area protected under catchment management.

To increase the area under better management and good vegetative cover.

To increase the planting of exotic forest trees.

To increase harnessing and conservation of water for development project communities.

To increase the planting of indigenous trees.

To promote planting of fruit trees.

To create temporary employment through rehabilitation of degraded lands.

To promote water harvesting infrastructure at household and area level.

Key activities

Identify catchments.

Mobilize and train all stakeholders and map out different land uses.

Implement rehabilitation works.

Delineate rangeland under poor vegetation cover.

Assess the rangeland situation to determine improvement needs.

Conduct training for all stakeholders involved in rangeland management.

Promote formation of associations managing rangelands.

Rehabilitate/Reseed rangeland areas with poor vegetation cover

Develop grazing management.

Conduct training of trainers on forestry activities

Contact research on agro forestry, silviculture practices, disease and pest.

Facilitate training of community councils on forestry activities

Facilitate production of forestry trees seedlings in GOL nurseries.

Provide adequate seed from National Tree Seed centre.

Solicit support from schools, communities, institutions, individual farmers in planting forest trees.

Improve the management of existing natural forests

Conduct research on propagation methods, growth rate under different conditions.