Fiji Launches $24.26 Million Programme for Green Rural Growth

The first phase of BE-GREEN is expected to directly benefit around 6,550 households, reaching approximately 39,300 people across Vanua Levu.

Fiji has launched a US$24.26 million programme designed to help rural communities build stronger livelihoods while restoring forests, coastal ecosystems and farmland across Vanua Levu, the country's second-largest island.

The Fiji Blue Economy and Green Community Development Programme (BE-GREEN) is a partnership between the Government of Fiji, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The multi-phase initiative will support communities in moving beyond subsistence farming by creating profitable businesses in agroforestry, seaweed farming, eco-tourism and other sustainable industries.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the programme reflects the country's National Development Plan 2025–2029 and Vision 2050, which focus on expanding economic opportunities, protecting natural resources and ensuring development reaches rural villages and island communities.

Rural families to receive support for sustainable businesses

Implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Waterways and Sugar Industry in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, BE-GREEN will encourage communities to develop business and environmental plans tailored to local needs.

The programme will offer financial incentives for restoring degraded forests, mangrove ecosystems and abandoned sugarcane land while creating commercial supply chains for products including cocoa, root crops, honey, seaweed and sea grapes. Rural entrepreneurs and cooperatives will also be able to apply for matching grants to invest in eco-tourism ventures, agricultural processing facilities and value-added food products that can generate higher incomes.

A pilot initiative with the Reserve Bank of Fiji will explore new ways for families to channel overseas remittances into rural savings and productive local investments, creating additional opportunities for long-term economic growth.

Thousands of households expected to benefit

The first phase of BE-GREEN is expected to directly benefit around 6,550 households, reaching approximately 39,300 people across Vanua Levu. Women, young people and iTaukei communities will be a major focus of the programme, ensuring that groups often facing greater economic challenges have access to new business opportunities and financial support.

IFAD Associate Vice President Donal Brown said the programme combines investment in people, production, markets and ecosystems, showing that restoring nature can go hand in hand with improving rural incomes. He noted that protecting forests, freshwater resources and coastal reefs is essential for the future of Fiji's agricultural and tourism sectors.

Part of a wider Pacific development strategy

BE-GREEN also supports IFAD's Pacific Islands Regional Strategic Opportunities Programme (RESOP), which guides investments across 13 Pacific Island countries through 2033. The regional strategy addresses shared challenges including rural poverty, food insecurity, climate change and geographic isolation.

Over the past four decades, IFAD has mobilised US$557 million for development projects across the Pacific, including US$194 million from its own loans and grants, helping improve the lives of around one million people throughout the region.