FIJI Pine Ltd (FPL) has for the first time transferred a dividend payment of $5million to the Fiji Pine Trust.
In a statement this week, the company said it represented a new approach to managing benefits, promoting greater transparency, fairness and a community-centered distribution across all landowning groups.
“For the first time, dividends are being directly distributed to the Fiji Pine Trust instead of individual landowners,” Fiji Pine board chairman Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure said.
He said Fiji Pine Trust will distribute the money after consultations with beneficiaries and after they have a distribution system in place.
“On LSBPs (Lease Security Bonus Payments) from previous years that we manage, that will continue to be distributed by FPL until all funds are dispersed,” Mr Vakalalabure said.
Pine land landowners derive a range of monetary benefits from the company, including 12 per cent of net revenue (revenue less direct cost of logging, cartage and roading) from all logging operations, a levy of 5.5 per cent VEP on every roading and logging operation carried out on FPL lease areas, lease premium of $20 premium per hectare and $14 rental per hectare and a seven per cent stumpage to landowners for fuelwood extracted from FPL lease area.
The dividend cheque handover took place at the TLTB Boardroom in Suva.
