“Thirty per cent of Fiji’s population live below the poverty line and out of this, 75 per cent are among the nation’s natural resource owners.”
According to the First Nation (Fiji) Resources Foundation, with “approximately 1117 villages in Fiji and a minimum of 3000 landowning units, there is no doubt that they have resources that need to be monetized.”
The First Nation Natural Resources Symposium 2023, held this week in Suva, was conceptualised as a means to assist the people and the Government of the day in fulfilling their objectives surrounding natural resource owners.
The three-day symposium held from August 21 to 23 at the Lower Civic Auditorium, with the theme Monetizing Natural Resources with minimal Carbon Footprints through inclusive communal MSMEs, included information and capacity building sessions with the registered attendees.
The symposium focuses on “first nation” communities on accurate auditing, monetizing and value adding of natural resources and agricultural resources in sustainable, safe methods ensuring communities are equipped to trade in global and local market spaces.
“Our interest and responsibility is to reach out to these communities, empower them and also to help the Government in the fulfilment of its development objectives,” said founder Mereoni Duaibe.
Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica urged attendees to look at the issue not from a racial perspective but an economic one as the empowerment of the indigenous race would breed new economic activity for the country.
The symposium registered a significant number of attendees and included information booths at the foyer open to the public.
