But Bush yet to designate it

Haidee V. Eugenio
A proposal to establish a United States national marine monument in the three northernmost islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has been drawing opposing views from the community.

While the proposal has polarized the CNMI—a 14-island United States territory in the Western Pacific—it nevertheless facilitates discussions about balancing environmental, cultural, political and economic considerations.

On one end of the spectrum are those who tout showcasing the northern islands’ beauty, protecting and conserving natural resources, worldwide recognition of the CNMI as an environmental leader, global media attention, and economic benefits of about US$333 million over the next several years should the area about the size of the state of Arizona be declared as a US national monument.

On the other end are those who consider such designation as tantamount to taking away the rights of the CNMI to have control over its own marine resources and would result in a complete ban on fishing and mining, which conflicts with the commonwealth’s plan to establish its own fishing and mining industries.

Critics also say the proposal offers a protectionist/preservationist approach, instead of sustainable use approach.
At the center of the proposal by the $4 billion-plus non-profit and non-governmental organization Pew Charitable Trusts are the uninhabited islands of Uracas or Farallon de Pajaros, Maug and Asuncion.

The proposed area covers 115,000 square miles and located about 300 miles from CNMI’s capital and most populated island of Saipan.

Pew Charitable Trusts is lobbying the designation of the area as the “Mariana Trench Marine National Monument,” similar to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, formerly the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, created by Bush on June 15, 2006.

US President George Bush has yet to consider designating the 200-mile exclusive economic zone surrounding the three islands as a national monument.

Several features attracted Pew’s interest in the CNMI, including its location. It sits along the Marianas Trench, the deepest place on the globe and demonstrably one of the wonders of the natural world.

To-date, there has been only a minor amount of legal fishing in the three islands proposed; they are healthy and relatively free from pollution and other direct human impacts.

The organization says the areas involved are important enough for CNMI residents that the Commonwealth Constitution designated them as nature reserves. Pew Charitable Trusts also understands that “it is a dream for all Chamorros and Carolinians to someday visit the northern waters and there is local interest in protecting them for future generations as part of your cultural heritage”.

Opposition

CNMI Governor Benigno R. Fitial is among those opposed to the proposal. He had written to President Bush to “refrain from designating any portion of the CNMI as a marine monument, marine sanctuary, or national park”.

He said in his view, such a designation would “greatly reduce or eliminate the ability of the CNMI government to carefully balance cultural, environmental and economic considerations in the region in an open and inclusive manner.”

In his letter to the US president, the governor pointed out that his opposition to the proposal is shared by both the CNMI Senate and House of Representatives which adopted a resolution urging Bush against declaring the three islands as a marine sanctuary.

But lawmakers, through the Senate Joint Resolution 16-4, are not entirely closing the doors on the proposal.

They say they do not support the proposal “at this time and feel that a study, discussion and deliberation (are) necessary before any further action is taken” or “until such time as the people of the CNMI have had adequate opportunity to consider and give input on the issue”.

Fitial was first introduced to the proposal in December 2007 when Pew Charitable Trusts wrote him a letter asking his support for the designation of a national monument around Uracas, Maug, and Asuncion, an area he says is “already designated by founders as a nature preserve under the CNMI constitution.”

John Gourley, an environmental consulant and biologist, says the monument proposal is being forced on CNMI residents.

“Permanently giving away extraction rights to over one-third of our EEZ is a very important issue where the affected communities—the people of CNMI—should be allowed to discuss according to their timetable, not Pew’s,” says Gourley, who is amongst the most vocal critics of the Pew Charitable Trusts proposal.

Just like the governor and other critics of the proposal, Gourley believes the designation of the marine monument will stop recreational and commercial fishing, as well as any attempt at oil, gas, and mineral extraction.

Angelo Villagomez, CNMI coordinator of Pew Environment Group, says waters around the northernmost islands have not provided a penny of economic benefit to CNMI to-date.

“If there were commercially valuable stocks of fish in those waters, someone over the past few decades would have started a viable fishery,” he told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

He adds that mining, while a speculative possibility, suffers from two flaws: commercial deep-sea mining is not currently being done anywhere in the world and the proposed monument is in federal, not CNMI, waters.

There are also those who oppose the marine monument proposal just because they are suspicious of anything that has to do with the federal government, according to Villagomez.

Because of a measure recently signed by Bush, the federal government will take control of CNMI immigration as early as June 2009.

“That attitude means it doesn’t matter whether or not a proposal is beneficial.

For those opposed to working with the federal government, even a terrific opportunity will be attacked,” Villagomez says.

Political agenda? Gourley says his opposition is also partly because he believes the true intention of the proposal is to further the political agendas of the Pew Charitable Trusts and Bush.

“The proposed Pew monument is really all about US mainland politics, not conservation and not the CNMI.

This is the underlying reason why Pew is pushing so hard for CNMI to make a decision before President Bush leaves office in January 2009,” he told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

But Pete A. Tenorio, CNMI’s representative to Washington, DC, called on the community to look at the merits of the marine monument proposal instead of focusing on the group behind it.

“We need to stop focusing on Pew and seriously start talking among ourselves about what resources we have and how best to economically utilize as well as protect them for us now living and for future generations,” he said in a statement.

Nevertheless, Tenorio backs continued dialogue with the federal government on Pew’s proposal. He said he had been assured by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality that Bush would only create a national monument if the people of the commonwealth asked him to do so.

Tenorio, who is contesting to be CNMI’s first delegate to the US Congress, added that heritage protection and economic exploitation are compatible given the right policies.

Northern Islands Mayor Valentin I. Taisakan, in a June 6 letter to Bush, asked him to delay for six years any proposal to establish a national marine monument in the CNMI.