FAO Forestry country profiles - forest management

History

Forest management and silviculture

Fiji is a Melanesian island group, but with strong Polynesian influences. Traditional forest management was largely restricted to family home gardens, which utilized agroforestry techniques, while the broader extent of accessible mataqali (village or clan) forest lands were used as a communal source of fuel, building materials and for hunting and gathering activities. Timber, particularly sandalwood, attracted the first European traders to Fiji, with most of the sandalwood logged before 1820. Throughout the nineteenth century, planters arrived and cleared lowland forests for cotton, sugar and coconuts. Industrial timber harvesting grew slowly. In 1928, nine sawmills were producing around 6 000 cubic metres of timber. By the late 1940s, timber supplies in the vicinity of main centres of population were being depleted and serious erosion was occurring in the 'dry zone' as a result of uncontrolled grazing, burning and timber cutting. The Forestry Department was established in 1938 with the objective of monitoring and controlling the exploitation of native forests. A programme for resource development through large-scale plantations was implemented during the 1960s. The principal species planted were Pinus caribaea and Swietenia macrophylla. Since the 1980s, Fiji has been a modest exporter of forestry products with the first plantation-grown timbers being harvested in 1987.