Collaboration with stakeholders important for department: Wycliffe

Permanent Secretary for Environment Joshua Wycliffe is urging business stakeholders to collaborate with them.

He said during these financially stressful times, the only way to recover was to adapt, be transparent and be quicker in whatever we do. He was speaking during the awareness workshop on Kigali Amendment for the refrigeration and air-condition stakeholders the Holiday Inn, Suva, yesterday. Mr Wycliffe said: “The fastest path to recovery is collaboration. Collaboration with businesses is very important for the department.

“All these amendments, workshops are efforts of the department in reaching out to the stakeholders.”

Mr Wycliffe said amendments made at the workshop would enable a legal framework for the ratification of the Kigali amendment and at assessment of the legislative policies for the implementation of the amendment.

“To make an impact on the ground is to build a legislation, consultation and amendment consultation with you, work on it and engage with the sector groups and be able to make a change,” he said. “Another reason the Fijian Government, particularly the Department of Environment does amendment is to make businesses operations easier.

“The Kigali amendment is to make it business friendly to be able to work with what is available, making it easier for the government agencies to interact and get results faster.”

The Kigali amendment is an international agreement to gradually reduce the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Mr Wycliffe said recently there were two significant amendments done.

The first amendment was the Endangered

Species and Protected Species Act (EPS) where two Dakua and Makedra trees were banned from exporting but through scientific research done by them, they were able to revise the legislation, it is now open for export.

Second, is the use of plastic bags, through their Environment Management Act Regulations amendment, plastic bags can now be used by agriculture, health, medicine, Police, and few other things.