A UNITED Nations Forum on Forests workshop underway in Nadi is teaching forestry officers from the Pacific how to better access funds from global donor agencies.
UNFF forest affairs officer Benjamin Singer said Pacific Island countries had been struggling to access much-needed funds for reforestation and forest conservation projects for a long time.
“In 2013, the latest year we’ve got figures for, the whole Pacific region secured less than $6million which is less than half a per cent of what developing countries worldwide have secured from international donors.
“The potential for the Pacific is huge, especially when you take into account there’s a newly created Green Climate Fund which became operational this year with $6billion,” he said
Sairusi Bulai, acting deputy director Sustainable Resource Management at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community said access to funds had always been an issue because of a lack of skills in key areas.
“We know there are funds available from international donors, we know we can access these funds but we lack the ability to access these funds,” he said.
“We do not have the capacity to design projects and write proposals that are going to be attractive to donors and that is why this workshop is very important for the Pacific.”
The workshop ends today.
