26 Sep 2019

Fiji PM announces plan to plant 30 million trees

11:12 am on 26 September 2019

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has announced a plan to plant about 30 million trees in response to the climate crisis.

Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at the COP23 Fiji conference in Bonn, Germany on the 12th of November 2017. COP23 if organized by UN Framework Convention for Climate Change. Fiji holds presidency over this meeting in Bonn. (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto)

Photo: AFP

PAC News reported he made the announcement at the World Leaders for Nature event in New York.

Mr Bainimarama said the trees would be planted over the next 15 years, funded by selling credits for the carbon that the trees would capture.

He said the plan will encourage Fijian people to protect trees and mangroves because it offers a financial incentive as well as a natural one.

The prime minister said healthy forests act as a carbon sink, capturing more than 20 percent of emissions that need to be reduced to limit global warming.