By EDDIE OSIFELO
A National Herbarium & Botanical Garden team is ready to visit Fiji this month with the aim of bringing back plants removed during the ethnic conflict between 1998-2003.
Minister of Forestry and Research, Dickson Mua confirmed this in Parliament when asked by the Leader of Opposition, Mathew Wale.
Mua said the team will negotiate with officials in Fiji for the safe returns of these plants.
Furthermore, Mua highlighted the facelift at the garden, including cementing the pathway, installing water, fencing, training of tour guides and completion of data base.
However, he said a Cabinet paper to deal with trespass was submitted to Cabinet because the fence cuts through some homes.
A National Herbarium & Botanical Garden Division is looking after the new building that was opened in 2017.
The Division exists as an implementer of Solomon Islands and overseas joint researches and studies which would lead to greater understanding and knowledge about the use of the forest resources and why protection, conservation and studying of these forest resources and their ecological biodiversity is so important.
Besides that, the Division is also responsible in the collection and preservation of the plant specimen and information for the identification of their botanical names and their potential uses.
