Fiji Forestry Project Wins $307,399 Australian Grant

7 May 2009

A teak plantation project by Future Forests Fiji has been awarded a grant of F$307,399 (A$190,000) under the Australian Government’s Enterprise Challenge Fund.

Announcing the award today, Australia’s High Commissioner to Fiji, Mr James Batley, said the Enterprise Challenge Fund was an innovative, and important, part of Australia’s ongoing aid program in Fiji, which would total some F$43.5 million this year.

Mr Batley said the Enterprise Challenge Fund was a F$33.1 million program aimed at strengthening the private sector, encouraging economic growth and livelihood benefits for the poor. The program is currently being piloted in a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Fiji.

Mr Batley said the grant to Future Forests Fiji will enable it to expand and modernise its seed germination and nursery facilities on Viti Levu. The project will create long-term employment and training opportunities in teak seedling production and management for local indigenous landowners and their families in six rural villages in the south-eastern Ra province.

In addition to job opportunities, indigenous landowners will receive ongoing income through leasing their land for plantation use and from royalties or stumpage from each tree planted on their land. They are also expected to benefit from the future sale of the grown trees to international and local markets.

“We hope the project will lead the way in sustainable forestry for Fiji,” Mr Batley said.

“Through the Enterprise Challenge Fund, the Australian Government is helping the private sector to play its part in alleviating poverty across the Asia-Pacific region.”


Background
Open to all firms, the Enterprise Challenge Fund is competitive and promotes private sector investment in initiatives that extend services or provide employment and other benefits to poor communities. Grants of between F$161,000 and F$2.4 million are available to businesses that are prepared to at least match the Australian Government’s grant.

Future Forests Fiji is one of ten businesses that have been awarded grants totalling A$6 million under ECF’s second round of funding. Other successful business projects are based in Cambodia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Last year, Fiji’s Nature’s Way Cooperative Limited received F$350,000 from the ECF’s first bidding round.


***ENDS***