The Ministry of Forests is finalizing the country’s Emissions Reduction Program (ERP) document with feedback from the independent World Bank Technical Advisory Panel.
Minister for Forests, Hon. Osea Naiqamu confirmed this while opening the REDD + High Level Consultation on Benefit Sharing and Carbon Rights in Korolevu.
“We intend to submit Fiji’s ERP to Cabinet for endorsement by mid-May,” he said.
Fiji is party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and thus obliged to develop and implement programs for mitigating or adapting to changing environmental conditions due to climate change.
“Later on, in July, we will be presenting our ERP to the Forest Carbon Partnership Fund - Carbon Fund Participants Committee.
“If our ERP is approved by the Carbon Fund, Fiji will be eligible to receive payment for our emissions reduction,” Minister Naiqamu noted.
Fiji’s ERP document proposes efforts to combat climate change by removing from the atmosphere and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from the forest at the rate of two million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in five years.
“Legal analysis of forest carbon rights in the context of Fiji is fundamental to providing certainty towards trading of Carbon and for developing benefit sharing mechanism. The right to sequestered carbon is a new and unique form of property rights.”
The workshop included senior Government officials and stakeholders and held to discuss and obtain feedback on Carbon Rights and Benefit Sharing Mechanisms, so wider representation of stakeholder views is captured and recommended in the ERP documentation.
Fiji's ERP is due to be implemented by June 2020.