A-G: Balance needed
THERE needs to be balance between the amount of forest Fiji can maintain for carbon trading and the amount needed to be cut down for development.
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made the comment while opening the emissions reductions payment agreement workshop in Nadi this week.
“In certain discourse, there seems to be this thinking that developing countries like Fiji simply can make vast swathes of the country available for carbon trading,” he said.
“In that they just don’t cut down their resources and don’t harvest anything at all but to the detriment of the development of the country.
“So I think there is a balance in all of this.
“How do we ensure, with the landowners, whether they are indigenous or other landowners or even the State, realise the value of what they are doing.
“I would urge the stakeholders that are here from the different ministries to be able to understand what we are doing and the long-term impacts.
“In the overall context, when we are talking about REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) and REDD+, we need to ensure that we have the right publicity and right awareness with the different stakeholders, in particular the landowners and in particular those who benefit from it.”
Speaking to World Bank representatives at the workshop, he said Fiji was a good brand and because of this, any discussion about carbon trading needed to take that into account.