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Forests & Trees (FAT)
With a total of about 35 million hectares forests are an important natural resource in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), making up between 20 and 80% of the national land areas. But the Pacific forests are severely threatened by clearing for conversion into other forms of land use, and overexploitation and degradation through unregulated logging. This contributes to environmental, economic, social and political instability in the Pacific.
The FAT thematic group aims to contribute to the sustainable management of forests (Objective 2 of LRD’s Strategic Plan) by assisting PICTs in four main areas.
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Improving the regulatory framework for a widespread application of sustainable forest management, SFM (Output 2.1 of LRD’s Strategic Plan)
A recent example is the development of a new National Forest Policy for Fiji that is oriented towards sustainable development (SD) and dealing with issues such as governance, fiscal instruments, participation of civil society and industry, capacity building, research, and obligations under international conventions. The policy is being developed in a highly participatory approach, involving all relevant stakeholders at national, divisional and provincial levels, including from sectors other than forestry.
Other examples of FAT’s policy advisory services are the participatory development of a National Rural Land Use Policy for Fiji, a National Code of Logging Practice for Niue, and a National Agroforestry Master Plan for Tonga.
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Developing models for community-based SFM, and to test them in Model Areas, for the promotion of SFM practices (Output 2.2)
Although more than 80% of forest lands in PICTs are owned by local communities, most of them are “managed” under short-term licenses by foreign or local logging companies.
The goal is that the local resource owners depend less on logging companies and rather manage their resources themselves, thereby capturing maximum long-term revenues from their resources, alleviating their economic hardship and contributing to overall community development.
The FAT group provides a wide range of support to government authorities and communities, including providing training in forest inventories, reduced impact logging, silviculture, timber processing with mobile sawmills, but also in the establishment of community-based forestry enterprises.
Recent milestone achievements include the participatory development of the first comprehensive 10-year Forest Management Plans in the Pacific, for the Model Areas in Fiji (6,350 hectares), Vanuatu (350 ha) and Samoa (700 ha).
A former Model Area in Fiji was recently selected by FAO as a model for “Excellence in forest management in Asia-Pacific”.
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Promoting awareness, both for the resource owners and the general public (Output 2.4):
 Publish a quarterly newsletter disseminated throughout thePacific
Organize displays at regional meetings and national events such; Environmental Week and Arbour Day
Produced a short film on community forestry and a number of short animated cartoons for screenings on TV and cinemas
Published the illustrated book The Lost Paradise to raise children’s awareness of forests’ importance to humans
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Promoting efficient post-harvesting technologies (Output 3.3)
Support the development of the TripleS-CITY - the Sanma Small Sawmillers Central Indigenous Timber Yard, for the processing, storage and marketing of timber in Vanuatu.
Capacity training on Morinda juice processing in the Federated States of Micronesia
Regional workshops on the utilization of coconut timber.
The FAT thematic group consists of SPC’s Forests and Trees Adviser, 7 staff members of the GTZ-supported Pacific-German Regional Forestry Project, and a staff member of SPC’s Genetic Resources team.
For more information, please contact
SairusiB@spc.int Team Leader for the
Forest and Trees Programme.
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