US pledge to ocean conservation welcomed

In the final day of the 43rd Pacific Island Forum, Kiribati president Anote Tong welcomed secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented commitment, on behalf of the United States, to ocean conservation in the Pacific region, deepening its relationship between Kiribati’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM), a huge area of the Pacific Ocean managed by the United States.

“It will deliver both individual and collective aspirations for conservation and will focus on both natural and cultural heritage conservation,” said Tong, who is also a board member with Conservation International.

“The protection of the islands and ocean of the Phoenix Ocean Arc is a common challenge and this agreement reflects a shared vision, a compelling impetus for co-operation that crosses huge tracks of ocean, politics and heritage.”

Clinton told the gathering at the Forum: “Our countries are bound by shared interest, and more importantly, shared values, a shared history, and shared goals for our future. So the United States is already invested in the Pacific. Indeed, we are increasing our investments and we will be here with you for the long haul.”

Clinton also voiced support by the US for the Pacific Oceanscape initiative envisioned by President Tong and endorsed by Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in 2010, and welcomed opportunities to identify ways of protecting and managing PRIMNM and PIPA, including both the Phoenix and Line Islands of Kiribati.

Co-operation between the US and Kiribati is long standing with the Treaty of Friendship (1979), a Shipriders agreement (2008) and the collaboration on protected areas under a sister-site agreement between PIPA and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The archipelago spans eight islands governed by Kiribati and two by the US (Howland and Baker).

“The Phoenix Ocean Arc announcement is a game changer for the oceans,” said Conservation International’s Pacific Marine Director Sue Taei.

“It will provide the basis for co-operation between one of the world’s largest economies and one of the smallest economies, which meet on the ocean as equals in their commitment and stewardship. They are both large ocean states working together forging a critical way forward to conserve the world’s blue economy.”

Regarding the US Asia Pacific strategic engagement initiative launched in July, Secretary Clinton also noted the US plans for programmes that total more than $32 million which will address priorities that the Pacific Island Nations have identified.

Clinton noted that “one of these is sustainable economic development that protects biodiversity.”

The Phoenix Ocean Arc is the first of the Pacific Oceanscape’s ocean arcs, designed to protect, large ocean areas, inclusive of island, coastal, open ocean, and deep-sea habitats. Marine and terrestrial protected areas remain the single most commonsense tool and biological insurance policy for Pacific Islands people to build resilience and capacity to environmental and climate change. The Pacific Ocean Arc concept fosters protected area design and investment that focuses on the archipelagic nature of the central Pacific and that includes the full range of approaches to protected areas, from village-based approaches to international collaboration for open ocean protection.

At this year’s Pacific Islands Leaders Forum, the governments of New Caledonia and the Cook Islands both announced major contributions to the Pacific Oceanscape, adding to those made previously by Kiribati and Tokelau.