BALANCING ECONOMIC GROWTH INTERESTS, THE COOK ISLANDS LAUNCHES WORLD’S LARGEST MARINE PARK 2012

World History was made in the South Pacific as the world’s largest marine park was launched in Rarotonga, The Cook Islands.

Foreign Correspondent Ngahuia Wade of the Ngai Tuhoe Iwi (Maori tribe of New Zealand) brings the story as Scotty Morrison presents.

Currently in the South Pacific $400-$500 million of fish are poached illegally by fisherfolk from around the world invading fisheries stock in South Pacific waters. Combined with increased kaitiakitanga (governance) of South Pacific people’s oceanic territories, the marine park is a good step in ensuring sustainbility of marine life for future generations. Tumeke primo.

Watch the beauty of global leadership trends being furthered from the Cook Island’s PM. Sky news also reported:

“The marine park covers about 1.1 million square kilometres of the South  Pacific. Fishing is banned for commercial export in these waters.

It is roughly half the exclusive economic zone claimed by the Cooks. The Islands now have less than 20,000 citizens living on 15 small  atolls.

A  largely symbolic gesture is the launch, as the ocean area now in legal reserve would be near impossible to police (The Cook Islands, must get some drones to do adequatre marine surveillance could be their future in enforcing the new fisheries legislation).

Kiribati too now has  a marine protection zone of 184,000 square kilometres. It will need new boats like Rarotonga to ensure marine protection.

Prime Minister Henry Puna used the occasion of hosting the  annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum to formally launch the  marine park, an idea that he floated last year at the Global Eye on Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi.

‘The marine park will provide the necessary framework to promote sustainable development by balancing economic growth interests, such as tourism, fishing and deep-sea mining, with conserving core  biodiversity and natural assets in the ocean, reefs and islands,’  Puna said, according to a report on Thursday from the Pacific Island News Association.

In June, Australia did the same, announcing it  was creating a number of marine parks in its territorial waters to form a network that would protect more than three million square  kilometres of ocean.”

Australian conservationists believe Australia must put even more coastal reserve territories into marine park status, to ensure the sustainability of Australian marine life too.

Very exciting.

New Zealand has also decided to allocate $10 million towards fisheries protection and also to increase this figure to $50 million in the next few years.

[Thank you for the news].

~Posted by Horiwoodblog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 1.9.12~