By IANS
San Francisco : The world’s largest marine protected area has just come up in the small Pacific island nation of Kiribati.
The coral reefs and rich fish populations of the area are under threat from over-fishing and climate change.
The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) conserves one of the earth’s last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, says Conservation International, a NGO associated with the setting up of the marine reserve.
It consists of eight coral atolls and two submerged reef systems in a nearly uninhabited region of abundant marine and bird life.
The 410,500-square km protected area also includes underwater mountains and other deep-sea habitat.
Kiribati and the New England Aquarium (NEAq) developed PIPA over several years of joint scientific research, with funding and technical assistance from the Global Conservation Fund and Pacific Islands Programme of the San Francisco-based Conservation International (CI).
“Kiribati has taken an inspirational step in increasing the size of PIPA well beyond the original eight atolls and globally important seabird, fish and coral reef communities,” said Greg Stone, the NEAq vice-president of global marine programmes.
“The new boundary includes extensive seamount and deep sea habitat, tuna spawning grounds, and as yet unsurveyed submerged reef systems.”
Located near the equator in the Central Pacific between Hawaii and Fiji, the Phoenix Islands form an archipelago several hundred kilometres long.
They are part of the Republic of Kiribati, which comprises three distinct island groups (Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands and Line Islands) with a total of 33 islands to make it the largest atoll nation in the world.
“The creation of this amazing marine protected area by a small island nation in the Pacific represents a commitment of historic proportions; and all of this by a country that is under serious threat from sea-level rise attributed to global warming,” said CI president Russell A. Mittermeier.
“The Republic of Kiribati has now set a standard for other countries in the Pacific and elsewhere in the world. We are proud to be associated with this effort that helps the people of Kiribati, and we call on governments and private conservation groups everywhere to support Kiribati in its efforts and make similar commitments to protect their own natural systems.”
Three NEAq-led research expeditions to Kiribati since 2000 found great marine biodiversity, including more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of fish, some new to science.
Protecting the Phoenix Islands means restricting commercial fishing in the area, resulting in a loss of revenue that the Kiribati government would normally receive from issuing foreign commercial fishing licenses.
NEAq and CI are helping Kiribati design an endowment system that will cover the core recurring management costs of PIPA and compensate the government for the foregone commercial fishing licence revenues.
The plan allows subsistence fishing by resident communities and other sustainable economic development in designated zones of the protected area.