Bigger Projects, Bigger Money In Next Phase: Minister Reddy
He also highlighted the positive outcome of women in the J-NR Programme.
Thursday 14 April 2022 | 12:00
The Minister for Environment, Mahendra Reddy (front row, fourth from left) with the Director Environment, Sandeep Singh (front row, third from left), the Permanent Secretary for Environment, Joshua Wycliffe (front row, second from right) with the 17 recipients after the handover of the cheques at Nailaga, Ba on April 12, 2022. Photo: Nicolette Chambers
In the next phase of Jobs for the Nature Rehabilitation (J-NR) Programme there will be bigger projects and bigger amounts of money.
This was the assurance given by the Minister for Environment, Mahendra Reddy on Tuesday.
He said Fiji was only a small country with limited resources.
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“In the next phase, we’re looking at bigger projects, bigger amounts of money, more engagement with the community, more commitment from the community and we need to accelerate the number of sites and different types of J-NR projects,” he said.
“With the environment, with waterways, we are doing big in terms of developing a new ecosystem in the coastal areas.”
He also highlighted the positive outcome of women in the J-NR Programme.
“One of the intriguing features of this programme is that we have got majority women participation not by chance, not by accident, because they are closer to nature,” he said.
“They deal with nature on a daily basis and are very particular about gathering these resources from our biodiversity.”
Seawalls
Mr Reddy added there were a total of 103 seawalls to construct.
He said a number of seawalls however could be completed because of the nature-based seawall which was an idea created by the ministry.
“A nature-based seawall is an original idea of the ministry because we have developed a school of thought, a new body of knowledge, that the sustainable solution to deal with a problem posed by nature is to use nature itself - cheap, sustainable, and gives ownership to the community,” he said.
“These nature-based seawall will protect close to 160 villages meaning some of the seawall will be protecting two villages or three villages because they’re side by side.”
Feedback: nicolette.chambers@fijisun.com.fj
