STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT TO ADDRESS KEY PRIORITY AREAS WITHIN FORESTRY MINISTRY
The Ministry of Forestry Stakeholder Engagement day serves as a key strategy to help the Ministry collaborate more effectively with its stakeholders and partners and address key priority areas like the rehabilitation of degraded forest landscapes, holistically, across the Forestry sector.
This was the message delivered by the Acting Permanent Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry, Sanjana Lal, this morning while officiating at the Quarter 1 Review Stakeholder Engagement Day attended by stakeholders of the Ministry and senior forestry officers at Yue Lai Hotel in Suva.
Ms Lal said close collaboration between the Ministry and its stakeholders is vital for the health of Forestry sector, and given the importance of forests to our people.
“As we are all aware, the Forestry Sector provides a challenging mix of short term operations, long term strategy and the need to balance a variety of potentially competing objectives,” Ms Lal said.
“These cover a wide array of areas, from Fiji’s international commitments regarding climate change and biodiversity, to supporting and working with our landowners to manage their land, the development and management of forest plantations, and forest and nature reserves, to boosting the economic contribution of Fiji’s forests through tourism, cottage industry support and providing goods for exports as well.
“All these require deeper and more meaningful collaboration with a variety of different stakeholders all across our value chain, including other Government departments, landowners, commercial companies involved in logging, processing and selling of products and services, and NGO partners. It is only by working together that we can effectively overcome our challenges.
“All of our work with you, our partners, is vital in supporting social and economic development for our people, especially in supporting lives and livelihoods of forest resource owners. Cross cutting all of this is ensuring the protection of Fiji’s environment while contributing to Fiji’s international commitments regarding climate change and biodiversity.”
Apart from the Ministry, stakeholders that made presentations today included, Fiji Pine Executive, Nabou Executive, Fiji Pine Trust, IUCN – BIODEV2030, SPREP – PBAC Project, SPC – Coconut Veneer and FHCL.