HON ALITIA CIRIKIYASAWA BAINIVALU - MINISTER FOR FISHERIES AND FORESTRIES - Promoting reliable global timber supply chains in the uncertain world

 Honourable Ministers
 Executive Director ITTO
 Business Partners
 Distinguished guests
 Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning, Ni sa bula Vinaka, and Ni Hao

Ten thousand years ago, 57% of the Earth’s land surface, amounting to about 6 billion hectares, was covered with forests. Since then, we, human beings had converted one third in the name of development, and, by 2018, our World’s forests had shrunk to about 38% of Earth’s land surface which amounted to four (4) billion hectares.

This reduction not only affects our environment with the increasing negative impacts of climate change, but also the supply of wood and non-wood products and services which are vital to our well-being. Small island developing countries like Fiji are especially vulnerable in the face of these challenges.

Fiji is a tropical island country, comprising of more than 300 islands, located in the South Pacific Ocean and scattered across roughly 1.3 million km2 that is declared as its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Fiji is also regarded as one of the 14 countries in the Pacific collectively referred to as the Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The Pacific SIDS have a land area of 51.7 million hectares on about 3,400 islands of varying sizes. The total area under forests is estimated at 40.3 million hectares. Collectively in 2020, Pacific SIDS produced about 14 million cubic meters of roundwood, of which 57% was industrial and the remainder mainly woodfuel.

Fiji with a total landmass of around 1.8 million hectares spread over more than 300 islands has a total forest area of about 1.1 million hectares or around 61% of the total landmass. A total of 87% of the total landmass are under customary ownership, while the remaining 13% comprises state land (5%) and freehold land (8%). Of the 1.1 million hectares, natural forests account for 82.3%, pine plantations account for 7.4%, mahogany plantations account for 6.2%, and mangrove forests account for 4.1%.

The Forestry Sector is among the 21 industries that drive Fiji’s economy. In 2022 the forestry and logging industry contributed approximately $F31.1 million, which is equivalent to 0.3% of Fiji’s real GDP. This was generated from a total roundwood production of 516,795 cubic meters.

Fiji is not a log exporter, but processed all of its roundwood production into sawnwood and woodchips, the two main products. Woodchips are for exports while sawnwood is targeted at both the domestic and export markets. In 2022, total domestic export earnings were estimated at $F1.1 billion with the forestry sector contributing around 6.8% which is equivalent to $F93.0 million.

We have been fortunate that our government, even before our independence in 1970, had the foresight to invest in forestry plantations, using two fast growing exotic species in pine and in mahogany. Our plantation efforts have been quite successful to the extent that we now have two commercial forest plantation companies, jointly owned by government and landowners; one managing pine and the other looking after mahogany. The basic philosophy was to support the establishment and maintenance of a sustainable timber industry serving both the domestic and export markets with a reduced contribution from our natural forests.
Indeed production from natural forests has been declining for a number of years and currently contributed only 3% of the national total production, with the balance coming from forest plantations of mahogany and pine which contributed 6% and 91% respectively. The mahogany plantation is expected to double its production in the next 18-24 months, increasing our total wood production to close to 600,000 cubic meters per annum. With most of the remaining natural forests expected to be reserved and managed for non-wood uses and services, all the wood produced are expected to be sourced almost totally from plantations.
In addition to the efforts by the commercial plantation companies, Fiji, as part of its contribution to the climate change global efforts, has been, from 2019, implementing a planting initiative wholly funded by Government, and focusing on rehabilitating degraded lands with a target to plant 30 million trees in 15 years. As we speak, we have planted more than 16 million trees under this initiative.

The diversity of species that are being planted ensures that we are not only restoring degraded forest lands and contributing to our NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution), but also targeting at complementing existing commercial plantations and to be able to cushion any gaps in wood supply that may arise in the future.

It must, however, be noted that the future of our forest plantations will depend very much on how effective we are in undertaking their restocking and expansion which are almost totally on lands leased from traditional landowning communities. Over the last twenty years or so, land tenure uncertainties have been a continuing challenge for the plantation companies in carrying out timely and adequate plantation restocking and expansion. When the plantations were first established the targets were 100,000 hectares each for both pine and mahogany. But this was never achieved, mainly due to landowner issues. The focus therefore is to pro-actively pursue a harmonious partnership with the landowning communities, targeting landowner socio-economic outcomes which would support the achievement of long term security of tenure.

I mentioned already the doubling of mahogany log production in the next 18-24 months. But to be able to do this successfully, a couple of things will need to be done to ensure that we get the best value for our products. One is to get our mahogany plantations certified and, secondly, to invest in marketing and in industrial processing that would produce the right kind of products and of the right quality for the target markets. Similar to our pine plantations, we are now actively pursuing FSC certification for our mahogany. But we have yet to work on our marketing and also on our processing.

Another major challenge is climate change. For example, the clear division between the wet and dry seasons is no longer happening, making it difficult to properly plan and carry out plantation establishment and also in terms of harvesting. Longer dry weather and increasing temperatures are significantly increasing the risks of forest fires, which has been a major issue with our pine plantations. And added to that is the uncertainty of our main plantation species in coping with the changing weather patterns due to climate change. Given that all our commercial plantations are of a single species, the risks are much greater, including the incursion of pests and diseases. I am sure that all or most of us represented here are facing these same challenges and are working hard in trying to find ways to effectively work around them.

This gathering is therefore timely in providing a forum where we are able to freely share knowledge and experiences to assist us in navigating our way around the many issues that we are facing and are going to face in the future. We will be happy to hear from any potential partners who may wish to work with us in some of the areas that I have mentioned. Our delegation also include representatives from our two plantation companies who will be willing to further discuss some of their issues with you.

On that note, I wish to thank the organizer, ITTO, and the Government of China, as host, for the opportunity to participate and to share our experiences in this important forum.

Vinaka Vakalevu and Thank you.