Government plans to train 3,000 honorary forest officers between this year and 2030.
Acting Senior Forestry Officer based at the Forestry Department Headquarters, Lasford Champo says currently there are less than 1,000 forestry officers across the 116 districts.
Speaking at an investigative journalism Training being conducted by USAID Alternative to Charcoal project and Wildlife Crime Prevention in Lusaka,Mr. Champo said staffing levels are a big challenge under the department.
He said because of the low staffing levels,alot of illegal charcoal finds itself on the market.
Mr. Champo says 98 percent of the charcoal on the market is illegal while only 2 percent is legal.
He explained that 98 percent of the charcoal is transported without licence while 2 percent is the one that is transported using liences.
He has disclosed that government wants to develop a statutory instrument to ensure that charcoal is transported during day as opposed in the night.
He also mentioned by the end of this year there will be on charcoal that will be sold along the roads by traders.
Meanwhile, Mr. Champo said Charcoal traders operate as a network to do some illegalities in the transportation of the commodity.
He said mostly they use one license to transport the charcoal, saying this is an illegality which will soon come to an end.
He says the department works closely with law enforcement agencies to ensure that they pounce on these illegalities by charcoal traders.