Attorney General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. [File Photo]

Fiji is among the four countries to receive financing under the US$41m portfolio to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) announced by the UN Joint SDG Fund today.

The programme proposal ‘Investing in Coral Reefs and the Blue Economy’ was selected out of 155 proposals from over 100 countries across the globe.

Through this joint programme, three UN agencies, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy will create a blended finance facility and build capacity to mobilize private and public investment capital to invest in private sector initiatives with a focus on the conservation and protection of coastal reefs and marine life ecosystems.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says Fiji is home to five percent of the world’s total reef regeneration capacity adding that over the years, Fiji has watched that pillar of our blue economy degraded by overfishing and pollution.

Sayed-Khaiyum stresses that the worst could still be to come, as climate-driven ocean acidification threatens to wipe out the vast majority of our coral.

Head of Pacific Sub-regional Office for UN Environment Programme, Sefanaia Nawadra, says Fiji is delighted to be part of this initiative because it is a unique way to combine the expertise from three different UN agencies to support the protection of Fiji’s coral reefs and marine ecosystems and thereby contributing to one of the most under-invested SDGs, which is SDG 14; Life below water.