Ocean, Niue, a small Pacific island nation, has devised a creative strategy to fund the protection of its expansive and pristine territorial waters: it will charge sponsors.
Near this image from 2018, a humpback whale’s tail can be seen breaking the water near Niue. Niue, a small island nation in the Pacific, has devised an innovative strategy to fund the protection of its expansive and pristine territorial waters: it will charge sponsors. According to the idea, which was announced on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 in New York by Niue’s Prime Minister Dalton Tagelagi, people or businesses may pay $148 to safeguard 1 square kilometre (about 250 acres) of ocean for a period of 20 years from risks including illicit fishing and plastic garbage.
Niue, a small island nation in the Pacific, has devised an innovative strategy to fund the protection of its expansive and pristine territorial waters: it will charge sponsors. According to the initiative, which was unveiled by Niue’s Premier Dalton Tagelagi on Tuesday in New York, people or businesses may pay $148 to safeguard 1 square kilometre (about 250 acres) of ocean for a period of 20 years from risks including illicit fishing and plastic garbage.
By selling 127,000 square kilometre units, which reflect the 40% of its seas that make up a no-take marine protected area, Niue intends to collect more than $18 million from the initiative. Before the launch, Tagelagi noted in an interview with The Associated Press that his people had always had a strong bond with the water. Tagelagi remarked, “Niue is only one island in the middle of the great blue ocean. “The water surrounds us, and we depend on it for our livelihood. That’s how we make a living.
He claimed that since their ancestors taught them about the ocean, Niueans want to be able to transmit that knowledge on to the following generation in a healthy and sustainable way. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the majority of fishing in Niue is done for domestic use, while there are a few small-scale commercial operations and sporadic offshore industrial-scale fishing activities. Due of the current level of illicit fishing and other activities, Tagelagi explained, “we felt that we should be taking the lead, to show people that we have to safeguard the ocean.
Unrestricted fishing can cause fish supplies to become depleted and unable to recover, and marine animals may consume or become entangled in plastics. Ocean habitats for undersea organisms have changed as a result of warmer, more acidic waters brought on by human-caused climate change. Niue is also particularly susceptible to increasing sea levels endangering its freshwater resources and land, as well as the possibility of stronger tropical storms fueled by warmer air and ocean. Niue, which has a population of only 1,700, admits it needs assistance from elsewhere. It is one of the world’s tiniest nations, overshadowed by an oceanic area that is 1,200 times bigger than its land area.
According to the concept, a nonprofit trust will be in charge of managing the sponsorship funds, known as Ocean Conservation Commitments. One sponsorship unit will be purchased by Niue, which will total 1,700. Other launch contributors include conservation group Conservation International, located in the United States, and philanthropist Lyna Lam and her husband Chris Larsen, who established the blockchain startup Ripple and assisted in setting up some technical elements of the programme.
The necessity for nations like Niue to continuously look for fresh money on a project-by-project basis, according to Mal Imirizaldu, a marine scientist and regional leader with Conservation International and the Blue Nature Alliance, is one issue with the conventional way to finance ocean conservation. “The main idea was to try and switch that, to change the priority and actually help them have funding so they can plan for the next 10 years, 15 years, or 20 years,” Imirizaldu added. The concept sounded good, according to Simon Thrush, a professor of marine science at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who was not engaged.
Thrush stated, “It’s a good idea,” adding, “I’d be up for it as long as the plan was thoroughly vetted and guaranteed over the long term.” 2023 The Associated Press Copyright. Toutes droits réservés. This content cannot be written over, aired, published, or transmitted again. Niue, a small island nation in the Pacific, has devised an innovative strategy to fund the protection of its expansive and pristine territorial waters: it will charge sponsors.
According to the initiative, which was unveiled by Niue’s Premier Dalton Tagelagi on Tuesday in New York, people or businesses may pay $148 to safeguard 1 square kilometre (about 250 acres) of ocean for a period of 20 years from risks including illicit fishing and plastic garbage. By selling 127,000 square kilometre units, which reflect the 40% of its seas that make up a no-take marine protected area, Niue intends to collect more than $18 million from the initiative. Before the launch, Tagelagi noted in an interview with The Associated Press that his people had always had a strong bond with the water.
Tagelagi remarked, “Niue is only one island in the middle of the great blue ocean. “The water surrounds us, and we depend on it for our livelihood. That’s how we make a living. He claimed that since their ancestors taught them about the ocean, Niueans want to be able to transmit that knowledge on to the following generation in a healthy and sustainable way. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the majority of fishing in Niue is done for domestic use, while there are a few small-scale commercial operations and sporadic offshore industrial-scale fishing activities.
Due of the current level of illicit fishing and other activities, Tagelagi explained, “we felt that we should be taking the lead, to show people that we have to safeguard the ocean. Unrestricted fishing can cause fish supplies to become depleted and unable to recover, and marine animals may consume or become entangled in plastics. Ocean habitats for undersea organisms have changed as a result of warmer, more acidic waters brought on by human-caused climate change. Niue is also particularly susceptible to increasing sea levels endangering its freshwater resources and land, as well as the possibility of stronger tropical storms fueled by warmer air and ocean.
Niue, which has a population of only 1,700, admits it needs assistance from elsewhere. It is one of the world’s tiniest nations, overshadowed by an oceanic area that is 1,200 times bigger than its land area. According to the concept, a nonprofit trust will be in charge of managing the sponsorship funds, known as Ocean Conservation Commitments. One sponsorship unit will be purchased by Niue, which will total 1,700. Other launch contributors include conservation group Conservation International, located in the United States, and philanthropist Lyna Lam and her husband Chris Larsen, who established the blockchain startup Ripple and assisted in setting up some technical elements of the programme.
The necessity for nations like Niue to continuously look for fresh money on a project-by-project basis, according to Mal Imirizaldu, a marine scientist and regional leader with Conservation International and the Blue Nature Alliance, is one issue with the conventional way to finance ocean conservation. “The main idea was to try and switch that, to change the priority and actually help them have funding so they can plan for the next 10 years, 15 years, or 20 years,” Imirizaldu added.
The concept sounded good, according to Simon Thrush, a professor of marine science at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who was not engaged. Thrush stated, “It’s a good idea,” adding, “I’d be up for it as long as the plan was thoroughly vetted and guaranteed over the long term.”