Pew ramps up marine monument campaign

Staff with the Pew Charitable Trust are ramping up efforts to rally public support for a proposed national marine monument in the Commonwealth’s northern waters ahead of the release of a major scientific report with new data on the region’s biodiversity.

The proposal—Pew’s response to a request by the White House for suggestions on potential monument locations to cement President Bush’s so-called “blue legacy” of ocean conservation—has proven controversial as many local officials and residents who say it would intrude on the Commonwealth’s authority to regulate marine resources. Proponents of the monument, however, say it will preserve a unique ecosystem for the future and bolster the CNMI’s struggling economy.

The White House is expected to issue a decision in the near future on whether federal officials will conduct a preliminary assessment of the region’s ecosystem, the first step towards its possible preservation.

Earlier this week, local Pew staff coordinator Angelo Villagomez and former Guam senator John Salas traveled to Tinian and Rota to present the findings of a recently finalized economic analysis that says the proposed monument could draw scores of new visitors every year to the CNMI and spur millions in added tourism spending. A Pew staff member from Washington, DC, meanwhile is now on Saipan to meet with local business leaders, lawmakers and supporters of the proposal.

Villagomez in an interview said the presentations, held at the Fleming Restaurant on Tinian and at Rota’s roundhouse, saw significant public interest and drew a host of questions from the islands’ residents.

“Probably, this is going to be the first of several meetings on Tinian and Rota to find out what questions people have about the monument and what we can do to help them get those answers,” Villagomez said.

The presentations come as Pew staff are finishing a scientific report on the proposal based on never before released National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Navy data on the northern islands that, he said, reveals a much fuller picture of the area’s wildlife than previously seen.

For example, the report cites a Navy survey conducted in 2007 that notes 19 species of whales and dolphins in the proposed monument’s waters, Villagomez said, adding that the diversity of the region’s mammals merits federal protection. In contrast, Villagomez pointed to a CNMI Department of Fish and Wildlife report saying that only one marine mammal species in the area, the spinner dolphin, has “special conservation needs.” On Thursday, a Fish and Wildlife official declined to comment on any findings in the Pew report until its official release.

Meanwhile, whether the campaign for the monument will draw added supporters on Tinian remains in doubt as the island’s mayor has already voiced opposition to the plan. In a June 12 letter to the White House, Mayor Jose San Nicolas said the monument would cost local businesses the right to extract natural resources from the waters within its proposed boundaries and the loss of those rights “far outweigh any benefits being touted by Pew.”

Local traditions, he added, “are based on a long history of cultural use of natural resources and I find the monument proposal to be contrary to our basic way of life.”

Moreover, San Nicolas urged the White House to keep the existing regulatory scheme—controlled by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and the National Marines Fisheries Service—in place as “these agencies are more sensitive to Pacific Islanders’ way of life and our traditional and sustainable approach in the use of our natural resources.”

Rep. Stanley Torres (R-Saipan) in an interview Thursday echoed many of the mayor’s sentiments, saying the Pew organization cannot guarantee that federal rules will safeguard the rights of local people in the waters at issue and that current regulations are sufficient to protect the region.

“They have no business negotiating with us,” Torres said, adding that the plan will benefit environmentalists but not the CNMI. “This is a one-sided proposal.”

However, Matt Rand, director of Pew’s Ocean Legacy program, said the organization and the White House are listening to the concerns locals have about the proposal and are taking them into account.

“There are concerns that local citizens have, we know that,” Rand said. “The White House will look at those concerns but also the potential economic and ecological benefits it will have and the folks who do support it.”