A new Timber Preservative Treatment Plant facility in Nasinu will strengthen the Ministry of Fisheries and Forests’ research and development capability.
This is according to Minister for Fisheries and Forest Osea Naiqamu while speaking at the launch of the new facility yesterday.
He says the treatment plant facility will help drive the forestry sector forward and increase its contribution towards the Fijian economy.
The Minister also said the facility will expand the ministry’s services to communally-owned forest plantation.
“Government is encouraging and strongly supporting value adding throughout the value chain and this facility will assist in the improvement of systems and processes for product development as far as timber treatment is concerned,” Naiqamu said.
“The purpose of this upgrading is to continue to improve its capability and capacity to better address the future challenges of Fiji’s forest sector in terms of timber treatment.”
The facility is also expected to boost the provision of timber treatment services at a reasonable cost for community and national development purposes.
“The protection of timber is intractably linked to resource sustainably. The increased serviceable life of the timber has positive impact on the overall forest resource as it further delays the time needed to replace them. This facility will improve our ability to find out and apply for local applications targeting various end-users,”