LAST year alone, the Fiji Pine Limited lost about 2,500 hectares of trees because of fire. Commissioner Northern Jovesa Vocea said this was a significant loss to the company and to the country given that the area burnt was almost 10 per cent of the production area for the company.
Officiating at the Draft National Forest and Rural Fire Management
Strategy consultation, Mr Vocea said the loss of forests because of fires did not only result in economic loss, but also the loss of biodiversity, both above and below ground, accelerating soil
loss which caused siltation and drying of streams.
Mr Vocea said frequent burning of some of our landscapes has badly degraded the land to the extent that it would take a very longtime for the land to recover if at all.
