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The Pacific island nation of Kiribati has created the world's largest protected marine reserve, a California-sized wilderness brimming with reefs, fish and birds, conservation groups said yesterday.
The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, covering 410,500 square kilometres (158,500 sq m), is one of the planet's last intact coral archipelagos and is threatened by over-fishing and climate change, the groups say.
It lies near the equator about half way between Fiji and Hawaii.
"The creation of this amazing marine protected area by a small island nation represents a commitment of historic proportions," said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.
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A green moray eel emerges from a reef on Phoenix Island, Kiribati. The tiny central Pacific islands nation has declared the world's largest marine protected area, a California-sized ocean wilderness of pristine coral reefs and rich fish and bird life that includes eight coral atolls. AP |
The US-based group, along with the New England Aquarium, is helping the Kiribati government develop a management and funding plan for the largely uninhabited area.
Studies led by the US aquarium have found more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of fish, some new to science.
The area also has some of the most important sea bird nesting sites in the Pacific, large fish populations and sea turtles, the aquarium and Conservation International say.
The protected zone is more than double the area Kiribati originally pledged to protect at a UN biodiversity conference in Brazil in 2006.
"The new boundary includes extensive seamount and deep-sea habitat, tuna spawning grounds and as yet unsurveyed submerged reef systems," said Greg Stone, the aquarium's vice-president of global marine programs.
Kiribati says it needs more money to pay for surveillance against illegal fishing as well as develop a trust fund, possibly as large as $100 million, to pay for running costs and compensate the government for lost income from commercial fishing licenses.
"A major part of the operational cost is the surveillance and we have a patrol boat donated by Australia," Tebwe Ietaake, secretary of Kiribati's environment ministry, said.
"We are also looking at the cooperation of Australia and New Zealand in aerial surveillance flights over the region," he said.
Agencies
(China Daily 02/15/2008)
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