28 Jul 2011

Fiji environment minister pushes for Pacific economies to go green

3:26 pm on 28 July 2011

The Fiji interim minister for the environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua, says Pacific economies need to go green if they're to ensure they remain viable.

He's told the meeting of the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation in Lami in Fiji that the Green Economy concept would help countries achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication.

The Green Economy, which is proposed as one of two significant themes for next year's UN Conference on Sustainable Development, promises to fully incorporate the environmental and the social agenda into economic discussions.

It encourages the economy and environment to work as mutually supportive partners and not as competitors.

Colonel Saumatua says given the high dependency of Pacific Islands countries on their natural environment, with commodities such as fisheries, timber and tourism, it makes sense for them to invest in a green economy.