Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

Class Forest Classification in Fiji shows that in 2010 the forecasted area of ‗Closed Forest‘ is
565.8406 hectares and ‗Open Forest‘ is 388.184 hectares (Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, 2010).
3.5 LOGGED FORESTS
Logging is becoming a growing concern in the South Pacific Island Countries and Fiji is not
an exception to this man contributed phenomena. Forests have been continuously removed in
Fiji to provide space for industrial growth. Industrial revolution in Fiji is taking place in Fiji
at the expense of degradation of natural environment from logging practices. Approximately
90% of ‗Unexploited Production Forests‘ and 83% of all ‗Fijian Forests‘ are under the
customary ownership in Fiji. All negotiations for undertaking logging practices for industrial
use is done by Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) (Chatham, 2010). Essentially, the
government runs a number of institutions primarily for the purpose of educating communities
on the importance of sustainable forests resource management (Chatham, 2010)
.
Furthermore, around 15,000 hectares of natural forest have already been harvested in Fiji
(Chatham, 2010). Essentially, logging is carried out using a selection system. However,
there are very little post harvest management systems in place to foster re-planting of the
logged areas (Chatham, 2010). Usually in the case of Fiji the logged areas become an
essential ground for undertaking industrial activity. The Fiji government has made important
achievements in sustainable forest resource management (Chatham, 2010). Government of
Fiji was able of achieve sustainable forest resource management by using ‗National Code of
Logging Practice‘ (Chatham, 2010).
3.6 REHABILITATED AREAS
Rehabilitated areas basically include the amenity plantation (Ministry of Forestry, 2010b).
Amenity plantations are sites of or intended areas for plantations primarily for some amenity
reasons such as reforestation, catchments rehabilitation, and landscape improvement
(Ministry of Forestry, 2010b). Map 3.5 shows that rehabilitated areas (amenity plantations)
in Fiji.
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