$15.2 million worth of funding secured by Govt from Global Environment Facility

$15.2 million worth of funding has been secured by the Fijian Government from the Global Environment Facility with the kind assistance from United Nations Development Programme for five projects in the country.

This has been highlighted by the Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Environment Permanent Secretary, Joshua Wycliffe at the signing of the agreement in Nadi.

Wycliffe says the grant will be used to ensure that the country’s pristine environment is sustainable, healthier and resilient.

He says the projects which are funded by the Global Environment Facility will be replicated around the country in selected priority catchments. 

Under this Project are Ba River, Tuva River and Waidina River/Rewa Delta on Viti Levu and Labasa River, Vunivia River and Tunuloa district on Vanua Levu.

Wycliffe says the projects under the Ridge to Reef Programme is a four-year development project which will be carried out in partnership with the UNDP and is in line with Fiji’s National Green Growth Framework.

He says the Ridge to Reef approach provides the appropriate framework for multi-focal projects addressing environmental and natural resource management issues in priority catchments and their linked coastal areas.

Wycliffe says the program seeks to focus on innovation, testing, and catalyzing implementation of cutting-edge methodologies, technologies and policy reforms with the objective of enabling replication and future scaling-up of integrated R2R approaches.

He says implementing the national project in Fiji aims to preserve biodiversity, ecosystem services, improve climate resilience and sustained livelihoods through a ridge-to-reef management of priority watersheds.