Press Release Detail

The women of Vunaqalutu in Dreketi, Macuata, are leading agents of change in their village as they embark on a seedling nursery and reforestation project.

The women who are members of Sedenaqele Women's Club are now more motivated to continue raising quality tree seedlings after receiving the first payment of over $24,000 under the Ministry of Forestry's Community Seedling Purchasing Programme. Sedenaqele which means making money from the land, is the vision of the 30-member club.

To date, the club members have individual nurseries in their compounds, however, they have plans to build a larger nursery with the main aim of centralizing all their seedling production activities.

All seedlings raised will be planted on a 100-hectare talasiga land on which Mataqali Vunaqalutu has signed a 5-year community incentive contractual agreement with the Ministry of Forestry and the iTaukei Affairs Board with the main objective of supporting landowner-led village initiatives.

This is similar to the project currently supported by the Ministry at Narayabale in Vaturova, Cakaudrove.

The financial support to the club, is being done under the Ministry’s Reforestation of Degraded Forests Project (RDF Project), which is a government-funded initiative promoting the reforestation of degraded forests in Fiji. The project’s major tasks are the coastal rehabilitation and construction of community nurseries. With this community incentive, more landowners are participating in tree planting, resulting in more land becoming accessible for forestry to meet the Ministry's planting target of 30 million trees planted in 15 years. 

Impact of seedlings payment

Sharing their stories with the Ministry’s Monitoring and Evaluation team last week, the women sang songs of praises about how the seedling payment has positively impacted them individually and their families.

The women invested $4000 into their cooperative canteen which was set up with the goal and dream of developing their small village.

Mere Ciba, 61, who looks after the club’s village canteen, described the payment as mana from heaven for the women. The canteen was on the verge of bankruptcy as it was crippled with debts. However, this all changed when the club members received their seedling money.

"The first thing our members did after receiving their seedling payment was pay off all their debts. I was emotional because I had given up hope of running the canteen and knew that it would close. I would therefore like to thank the Forestry team for raising awareness about this replanting initiative and offering a community incentive, as it has opened our eyes to the importance of not only safeguarding our environment and future generations, but also providing an income,” Mrs Ciba said.

Ms Ciba further stated that the women were able to fix their homes and purchase gas stoves, lino/carpet, brush cutters, chainsaws, voivoi, kula and cooking utensils, to name a few.

“This indeed has brought smiles to our members and now they are eager to continue raising seedlings and at the same time plant for our future.”

Another member, Selina Monika, stated that the seedling sales enabled her to realise her dream of owning a cooking stove, which has inspired her to grow more healthy seedlings for the club and work alongside other members. 

Community empowerment

Joseva Ratuba, Tikina Dreketi's resource management representative, stated that native tree planting has begun on the 100-hectare site and that they hope to maintain the momentum. Mr Ratuba stated that Vunaqalutu Village is implementing their project using the 'solesolevaki’ concept in order to build and enhance relationships between vanua, lotu, and the community as a whole. This will be critical for them as they work on the forestry initiative with their women and youth. 

“The men and young boys weed and clear the land and the women plant the tree seedlings. This is working in unity for without unity, nothing can be achieved,” Mr Ratuba said.

"Our village elders have agreed to start this project after being made aware of climate change and environmental protection by your team, and this has changed our mindset, to think not only about our generation today, but also our future. We have indeed been empowered, as it opened our eyes to look at opportunities like this as a win-win for all project. With the money from the seedling payment that the women received, it was an added boost and now we will continue to work harder. We have come to realise that what we have to offer or leave behind for our future in terms of environmental protection is tree planting,” Mr Ratuba added.

This week, the villagers began building a walkway through the village to all of the homes using a portion of the seedling payment funds set aside for community projects. Mr Ratuba stated that the objective now is to keep the momentum of this initiative going as they work on their long-term goal of extending the electricity grid from the highway to the village.

Acting Permanent Secretary, Atelaite Rokosuka, said communities can be leaders in forest conservation that also provides economic, social and climate resilience benefits. Mrs Rokosuka further added the Ministry is partnering with community and land-owning units in the four divisions to procure more land for forestry through the provisions of community incentives. 

“Engaging the services of land owning-units in this programme, will enhance the Government’s initiative to plant 30 million trees in 15 years. The involvement of landowners in the community incentive programme will increase the areas of community lands in villages under forests and trees and, at the same time, improves their socio-economic status by creating employment and income generation.”