Ministry of Forestry Partners with FAO to Develop National Plantation Forest Policy Framework
Earlier this week the Ministry of Forestry, Fiji has signed a Technical Cooperation Programme Agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which will assist Fiji Government through the Ministry of Forestry, Fiji in the development of a national policy framework on planted forests.
The Ministry has been working with FAO for decades and this collaboration has been ongoing in many areas and through several projects.
The role of plantation forests will be in supplying wood that is needed to grow the economy, feed national development, and also in reducing the pressure demand for timber on natural forests, allowing natural forests to carry out its function more effectively in the provision of ecosystem services. This was the initial long term purpose as to why plantation forests were established by government in Fiji.
This FAO funded project aligns with the Governments interests in fostering and increasing sustainable forestry production, together with its related primary industries in an effort to support economic development, alleviate poverty within forest-dependent communities, and enhance the national and global importance of forests.
This Policy will help Fiji guide the two plantation industries, Pine and Mahogany, and any other future plantation species or planted forests.
-End-