Babauta backs coral reef initiative reauthorization

Gov. Juan N. Babauta is urging the U.S. House of Representatives to continue funding the Coral Reef Initiative, saying it is extremely important to the CNMI.

In a March 1 written testimony submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Resources, Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans, Babauta said a decline in coral reef coverage threatens the CNMI’s cultural heritage, traditional ways of life, and physical protection in the long run.

“In the short-term, this decline immediately impacts the CNMI’s tourism and fisheries industries and thus our economy,” he added.

The governor said that initial efforts have brought awareness of the importance of the coral reef ecosystem in the CNMI to a new level and have provided funding to improve the CNMI’s coral reef conservation and management.

“The initiative has elevated our influence in the national and international arena for a cause for which we are very proud, the protection of our most precious resource, our coral reefs,” he said.

He said the CNMI places coral reef ecosystem protection as a priority concern. Its maintenance, he said, is very important because it provides cultural and subsistence uses, production and commercial food products, recreational opportunities for a healthy tourist economy, and physical protection of coastal zone.

Babauta noted that increased population and development over the past two decades has exacerbated the threats to the ecosystem.

The initiative’s reauthorization has resulted in the CNMI getting annual federal funding for coral reef protection.

Last year, the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved the CNMI’s $560,000 grant application to carry out the priority projects identified by the local Coral Reef Advisory Group

These included funding for a coral reef coordinator, an assistant attorney general dedicated to coral reef protection, marine enforcement operations, surveys of the Saipan Lagoon, and an economic reef evaluation.

The DOI has lauded the CNMI for developing “a comprehensive, detailed, and well-articulated set of proposals” to improve the management and protection of the CNMI’s coral reef ecosystems.

Babauta said the funds would be used specifically to address critical threats to CNMI coral reefs such as over-fishing, destructive fishing, and the harvest and collection of marine ornamentals; increasing development pressure, unmanaged land use and population growth; tourism and recreational overuse, and vessel groundings and anchoring; marine pollution, sedimentation, runoff, non-point source pollution, and marine debris; and lack of general public awareness.

The Coral Reef Initiative grant is given to the Governor’s Office but the funds are shared with four other agencies involved in coral reef protection.