Press Release Detail

Fifteen-year-old Verenaisi Canaqali often heard in the news about Fiji’s landscape reforestation initiative to plant 30 million trees in 15 years (#30MT15Y) and used to wonder what all the hype was about.
She did not fully understand why Fijians needed to care for the environment and plant more trees until she was provided with the opportunity to be a participant in a three-day training workshop on nursery establishment and management organised by the Ministry of Forestry in Sote Village, Vugalei, Tailevu, during her one-week school break (October 10–14).
The goal of the training workshop was to provide the villagers of Sote, Savu, and Naimasimasi the knowledge and abilities they needed to start small businesses, provide for their families, and gain self-sufficiency.
The participants were taught firsthand how to build basic, low-cost nurseries using readily available resources for their villages in order to generate income and replant logged-out land in their communities. They were also taught how to pot plants, how seeds are potted on trays and on the type of soils suitable for seedling potting. 
Verenaisi, who hails from Savu Village, learned that wetlands, mangroves, and forests played an important role in maintaining the environment and consequently, the quality of life and the economy of the Fijians as well as helping to clean the air and protect the water.
"My family are mahogany plantation landowners and I now know that it is my responsibility to continue planting trees, raising seedlings, and contributing to Fiji's planting target. The three-day training was timely as it coincided with our school holidays and what better way to spend it. I always thought that we needed to spend a lot of money to buy construction materials if we wanted to have a nursery. But after this training, I learned that we can make use of the resources around us to build a nursery, supply seedlings for planting, and even earn an income," Verenaisi shared.
Following this training, the Year 10 student from Sila Central High School made the decision to work hard in her studies in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a forestry officer or technician someday.
On October 16, 2022, the 62 participants received their certificates of participation from the Conservator of Forests, Mrs Sanjana Lal. She urged the participants to take responsibility for safeguarding their land resources by planting more trees and sowing their own seedlings.
Mrs Lal commended them for their efforts and teamwork and stressed the importance of forests and how our future depended on them. She said that it was important to provide landowners with the tools they needed to manage their resources responsibly, generate an income and boost seedling supply needed for the tree planting initiative.
Verenaisi, along with Tailevu North College students, Maika Bonawai, Vasenai Cagitabu, and Kelera Radinidau, were delighted to receive their certificates from Mrs Lal.
Maika Bonawai said, “The training opened my eyes to look beyond just securing a day job. After this training, I am able to prepare potting mixes for seed germination, how to germinate seeds, how to construct a simple nursery and manage it from there on. It is a very good idea to share with my family." 
He stated that owning a small nursery was important as it would provide seedlings with the added benefit of generating additional money to support his family.
Conservator of Forests, Sanjana Lal, stated that the Ministry was pleased to have students included in the workshop as educating young minds today would pay off in the long run. Mrs Lal added that young people would eventually aid in planting trees, monitoring and maintaining new forests over the years if they were involved in all phases of the training, including growing seeds, setting up a nursery, and caring for them.
She also encouraged the women participants to put to practice what they had learnt and to set up little income-generating nurseries in their communities.
The training also complemented the work of the Reforestation of Degraded Forest Project (RDF Project), which is a government-funded project promoting the reforestation of the degraded forests in Fiji. One of their major tasks is the coastal rehabilitation and construction of community nurseries.
RDF project plays a major role in the tree planting target of 30 million trees for a 15-year initiative, which was set by the Prime Minister and Minister for Forestry, Honourable Voreqe Bainimarama, during the United Nations Head of State Climate Change Summit in New York in 2019 in its campaign to combat climate change.

Community Nurseries to Supply Disease-Free Tree Seedlings
Permanent Secretary for Forestry, Pene Baleinabuli said the need for climate change solutions was more pressing than ever as the world struggles with deadly storms, fires, and droughts. Trees provide a dependable source of food, livelihoods, and climate regulation, both in forests and on farms.
Mr Baleinabuli said the RDF Project has budget provisions to assist community groups and individuals engaged in raising tree seedlings in their nurseries.
The plantation drive to reforest degraded lands with two million trees per year has increased the demand for seedlings. Thus, securing the services of community nurseries will increase the availability of planting materials at the beginning of the planting season.
"This saves the time and efforts of the State nurseries to raise all the required number of seedlings for the RDF project.  Purchasing seedlings from community nurseries will increase societal awareness to provide quality planting materials and improve the socio-economic status of stakeholders due to the assurance of employment and income," Mr Baleinabuli said.
According to RDF Forestry Officer Aporosa Ramulo Livani, research has showed that natural climate solutions, such as planting trees, restoring wetlands, preserving grasslands, and offering farmers incentives to plant cover crops, could also positively contribute in achieving the Paris Agreement goals.
"Investments in natural climate solutions can create jobs and improve the sustainability of forest and agriculture sectors, while also safeguarding water sources, providing habitat conservation, and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change," Mr Livani said.
He said Fiji, as a small island developing state (SIDS) in the tropical Pacific region, was proud to be leading the initiative of planting 30 million trees in 15 years, with two million trees being planted annually. To date, the Ministry with the people of Fiji and visitors have planted more than 15 million trees in less than four years.
The Government invested $1,615,893 for the financial year budget 2020-2021 for the implementation of the RDF Project with the Ministry’s 30 Million Trees for 15 years initiative.