Fiji vows to protect the environment

SUVA – The Fiji Government will only approve future development projects that do not damage the environment.

“This is the only way forward for Fiji,” Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said when he launched the Green Growth Framework in Suva on June 1.

“It means that everything we do as a nation , every project we undertake, only goes ahead if it doesn’t damage the environment”.

“We never use any resource, whether it is our trees on land or our fish at sea, unless we leave enough of them so they can still grow in sufficient numbers to be able to use them again. And to keep using them as the years go by,” Bainimarama said.

“The entire ethos of my government is to leave no Fijian behind and to meet the needs and aspirations of everyone.

“So our vision for national development is, above all, an inclusive one – to forge a national consensus that the best way for Fiji to move forward is to ensure that no project gets the green light unless it passes the sustainability test and is in the interest of all Fijians.

“With this document and with the five-year and 20-year national development plans that will have its principles at their core, my government is forging a new development model – one that is more holistic, integrated, inclusive and above all sustainable.”