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In an otherwise mixed month for the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), its leadership is hailing a win for Pacific conservation efforts with the UN Treaty on the High Seas coming into effect.
The legally binding UN High Seas Treaty officially received over 60 ratifications, and following years of negotiations, has this month become international law. It's a welcome positive development for Pacific conservation in a month when the US announced it was going to leave SPREP.
The UN Treaty
SPREP's director-general Sefanaia Nawadra described the treaty coming into effect as a testament to the long-running work by Pacific Island countries on ocean governance.
The treaty will give Pacific Island countries the ability to better manage high seas pockets in between their national waters, he said.
"The Pacific is peculiar in that within the national jurisdictions of countries in the Pacific, in between, there are what I call donut type spaces, international waters," he said.
"So this [treaty] allows us to implement management measures beyond our national jurisdictions into these areas that are of particular concern to countries within our region."
Pacific Ocean marine ecosystem Photo: USFWS
"So it's a very important agreement for us, and is the continuation of the global leadership that Pacific Island countries have shown on oceans throughout the history of global oceans management, starting off with UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea], which is the primary instrument that governs oceans."
Asked whether the treaty might make it easier for deep sea mining to take place in the Pacific, Nawadra said: "Primarily it's meant to be a conservation or sustainable management instrument. So you would allow conservation and protection in some cases, but in other cases, you would allow for managed activities".
He said the onus would be on Pacific countries to work together in groups or sub-groups to settle on what activity is allowed.
Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
The US retreat
Nawadra was philosophical about the US withdrawal from SPREP, but uncertainty lingers over what it means for the various programmes which the Pacific community cooperates with the US on.
He said he was not worried about the removal of US funding, but indicated the greater impact is likely to be on the work SPREP does with various US government agencies.
"We do a lot of joint activities with NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmoshperic Administration], with US CPA, US Department of Agriculture, Geological Service," Nawadra explained.
"Those are joint activities that benefit the US as much as it benefits the Pacific. I'm not sure how that will pan out going forward over technical cooperation. That's something that we have to work through with the US."
Meanwhile, the director-general denied media reports that China's latest funding offer to SPREP was about filling the gap left by the US.
Shortly after the US announcement, China, which is not a member of SPREP, announced a donation to the organisation of US$200,000 - which is approximately the amount of the funding shortfall created by the US departure.
The timing and amount of China's donation was merely coincidental, Nawadra said.
"They didn't step in because of the US. We've received funding from China for almost 10 years now," he said.
"So it's just a continuation of the annual contribution that they voluntarily give to SPREP. So it wasn't additional to what they normally donate."
He said the US retreat was not because of anything outside SPREP's mandate that the organisation had done.
