While blaming nations outside the region for ecological excesses in their waters, the islands would do well to set their own house in order.

Dev Nadkarni
Conservation was in the spotlight last month. Not entirely for the right reasons, though.

Some Pacific Islands nations were commended for their efforts at conserving their biospheres and marine ecosystems at the eighth Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation and Protected Areas held in Alotau in Papua New Guinea.

Fiji, for instance, which has committed to designate as much as 30 percent of its marine areas as protected zones by 2020, has already achieved a third of that target by closely involving local communities.

Many other nations too have earmarked such conservation zones and are progressing well towards their goals.

Some interesting and innovative concepts like cultured live rocks—an alternative to live coral—were also showcased at the conference. Rocks made from cement are placed in the reefs for just under a year enabling algae deposits to grow on them before they are ready for export.

It is hoped that this live coral substitute will help an industry that pulls in about 12 million Fijian dollars for endangered coral.

More significantly, the awareness about the importance of conservation is growing among the communities and last month saw perhaps a first of its kind lawsuit filed by local PNG communities on the State and a private party for trespassing their traditional fishing grounds, negligence and the use of unlawful chemicals for fishing in their waters.

Also, news from Europe that a major supermarket chain had announced it had pulled out tuna products manufactured by companies involved in pirate fishing in the western and central Pacific Ocean was welcomed by conservation circles in the region.

The pull out of the products from 1300 stores in Austria, France, the Czech Republic and Germany is the first-ever citing illegal, pirate fishing as a reason.

Over in Tonga, on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum summit, New Zealand rugby legend Jonah Lomu launched a high profile campaign against whaling in the presence of Princess Salote Mafile’o Pilolevu Tuita and the assembled Islands leaders. Though Lomu was not physically present at the event, his address from halfway across the world was seen live in his home country.

Tonga set the conservation agenda when the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV banned whaling in the kingdom nearly 30 years ago.

In the following years, the development of a whale sanctuary has led to the kingdom’s highly successful whale watching industry, now worth over T$21 million a year.

Tonga has come in for praise from conservationists and anti-whaling campaigners from all over the world for its efforts to preserve cetaceans by creating a safe environment for them in its territorial waters and enacting appropriate legislations—while also raising awareness by building gainfully interesting activities around them.

Japan has announced plans to cull 1000 whales including 50 of the dwindling humpback species in the southern Pacific Ocean for its controversial scientific whaling programme following last year’s defeat of the anti-whaling nations’ efforts to extend the worldwide moratorium on whaling.

It is to begin its whaling operations some time this month. Conservationists hope the well-timed ‘Jonah and the Whale’ campaign will spread greater awareness within the Islands region particularly among people to bring the necessary pressure on their leadership to take a harder line on the issue.

Several Pacific Islands controversially voted with pro-whaling nations last year. But there was bad news on the conservation front as well.

Last month, just on the eve of the Alotau conservation conference, despite fierce protests from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) besides several other organisations across the world, 30 wild dolphins ensnared in the Solomon Islands landed in Dubai amidst tight security in two specially-fitted DC-10 aircraft.

Four years ago, a similar shipment of dolphins from the Solomon Islands to Mexico caused outrage enough to force the Mexican government to enforce a blanket ban on all future live dolphin trade. In the face of international opprobrium, the then Solomon Islands government too followed suit with its own ban on export.

But then just within a couple of years, a private company based there challenged the export ban in the courts. In a landmark ruling earlier this year, the courts overturned the ban, paving the way for the latest export.

The present government is believed to be sympathetic to live dolphin exports and activists fear more shipments will follow.

Conservation officials at the Alotau conference said the export of live dolphins was contrary to the intent of a regional agreement on cetacean conservation signed last year.

Then again, in August this year, about 84 sea turtles were reported slaughtered as part of festivities at a Methodist Church Conference in northern Fiji.

This was despite a Fiji government-administered moratorium being in place since March 2004 that is set to expire only at the end of next year.

Most species of marine turtle are in the endangered list; but the numbers of four that inhabit Fijian waters—the Hawksbill, Green, Leatherback and Loggerhead turtles—are believed to be dwindling faster than the others. Green turtles are a migratory species that travel all the way from American Samoa and the Cook Islands to feed and nest in Fiji’s littoral environment.

Turtles are central to most Pacific Islands cultures and the moratorium, while protecting turtles throughout its currency, takes traditional mores into account and stipulates that a written permit be obtained from Fiji’s ministry of fisheries ahead of any ceremonial slaughter.

In this case, fisheries officials have told the Fiji media that a permit for no more than three turtles was issued but a number far exceeding that were killed and eaten.

Though the illegal harvest, sale and export of turtles—and their meat and shells—is punishable with jail terms and stiff fines, no charges have been laid in the Fiji case even months after it was discovered. WWF officials believe turtle slaughter takes place routinely in several parts of the country. They have urged the Fijian government to take preventive action on an urgent basis.

While blaming nations outside the region for ecological excesses in their waters, the islands would do well to set their own house in order.