The Ministry of Forestry is urging the people of Ovalau to construct their nurseries as they will be buying seedlings from local nurseries for the governments “30 Million Trees in 15 Years” initiative.
Speaking at Rukuruku Village in Levuka, Minister for Forestry Osea Naiqamu says the Ministry will be paying $3 for every fruit tree seedling and $5 for every seedling of native trees such as Yasi.
Naiqamu says this is the best time for people to construct their nurseries because the government can not complete this initiative alone.
He says they will need 60% of the landowners and village members to agree on the particular land where they will be planting trees.
He adds the team from the Ministry will conduct a two-day training on the construction of nurseries, how to do seedlings and also provide a timetable for planting so that it does not interfere with the village or church timetable.
The Minister says after the two-day training, each participant will be given silicon and polythene plastics for the seedlings and the only thing a participant should provide is the nursery frame.
Naiqamu says that he has visited more than 200 villages in the country where he has consulted them on the tree planting initiative.
2.3 million trees and mangroves covering 2000 hectares of land have been planted in just 20 months under the “30 Million Trees in 15 Years” initiative.
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