Sustaining environment is top priority for resort
Sustaining the environment including its resources and getting tourists and locals to be part of this, is top priority now for Plantation Island Resort.
This was after the resort’s staff members, with the help of the management, created a driftwood Christmas tree which attracted the attention of tourists during its Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on December 17. With the driftwood Christmas tree, sea shells were collected and used as decorations while the white sand from the Resort’s beach was collected and used as its base.
Plantation Island Resort General Manager Alex Wilson said a team had been preparing from the start of the year beginning with clean-up campaigns. “With the Christmas tree this year, we have done actually more than a handful of clean-ups on the island,” Mr Wilson said.
“I call it uneducated rubbish, in other words the person that disposes the rubbish is uneducated about the impact of that rubbish affecting the environment, climate and the people’s livelihood.”
He said in order for the resort to be proud of its resources, keeping the environment and beach clean was the way to start.
“This is their beach, this is their reef, this is the water they swim in and for us to be proud of that we have got to manage it, we have got to keep it clean and we got to make sure that the waterways are clean and accessible and it is not full of rubbish,” he said.
Resort manager Niven Maharaj said this year Plantation Island was keen on taking on the initiative of sustaining and conserving the environment.
“In the year 2018, we have introduced a clean-up campaign, coral conservation programme, eliminating use of plastics and plastic straws, restoration of our beach by planting mangrove trees and sea cabbages,” he said. “The Christmas tree that our team constructed signifies and represents the reuse of our mother nature’s vintage.” Mr Maharaj said the Christmas tree represented Fiji’s tropical paradise.