In support of the Government’s 30 Million Trees in 15 Years (50MT15Y) Initiative, the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB) is now working with a landowning unit in Navosa to plant trees.
CEO Mr Tevita Kuruvakadua says that the Board is working with a number landowning units around the country as part of their corporate social responsibility.
“Not only that, we are also doing this to support the Government’s effort in its 30 Million Trees in 15 Years Initiative as well as our commitment to national effort in climate change adaption and mitigation,” he adds.
Fiji celebrated the International Day of the Forest yesterday (Friday 19th March 2021) with the theme “Forest Restoration, a Path to Recovery and Well-Being”.
“For us as a land management organization, we believe that it will be a good idea to bring all our staff from all our offices in Viti Levu to one of the largest TLTB tree planting site wich is about 200 acres in size to join hands with Mataqali Navunuma (Koroua Village, Naqalimare, Navosa) to commemorate this very special day,” he says.
Mr Kuruvakadua says that TLTB is now one of the largest contributor to the tree growing revolution in Fiji’s national campaign to restore and restock degraded lands and forests which in turn will help in the fight against Climate Change by increasing the opportunities to protect the environment, and enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services, and socio-economic development.
“With the support of the landowners and the Ministry of Forest, TLTB has planted around 26,956 different tree species around the country including vertiver, palm, coconut, pine, mahogany, vesi, moli, tavola, yasi, vesi, kauvula, sikeci, ivi, vutu, tamarind and other fruit trees,” he adds.
Climate change is likely to affect the land resources of Fiji in a variety of ways which may lead soil erosion and coastal inundation as well as flooding.