Pearls in peril
pp. 8-9 · Read in the full issue
Cook Islands
Cheryl Lilly reports on a row that threatens a lucrative pearl farming industry.
THE PAST year the M W small island of Manihiki in the northern Cook Islands hasbeen the centre of a bitter conflict between its traditional Island Council and the Cook Islands Government in Rarotonga, over the issue of who con trols ana administers Manihiki and thus an emerging multi-million dollar
black pearl industry.
Threats of violence have been made against individual pearl farmers and the Government has closed Manihiki to all shipping and air flights, saying the restrictions will remain in force until the Island Council realises who runs the country and begins to act accordingly. It has been estimated that
a well-managed local pearl farming in
dustry would yield the Cook Islands |NZ4O million over a 10-year period, yet Manihikian pearl farmers are being denied the chance to participate fully in an exciting new industry that has the potential to play a significant role in salvaging the Cooks’ financial situation.
Much of the blame for the current situation has been levelled at the pre vious Government, which persisted in what many saw as support for a fore ign investor over local pearl farmers.
In 1981, the administration approached French Polynesia to allow officers within the Ministry of Marine
Resources to study pearl farming in
that country. Their visit convinced the Ministry it was imperative that the Cook Islands implement a pearl cul ture programme at the earliest oppor
tunity.
Since the first private farm was established in 1982, the Ministry has assisted by providing both technical in formation and pearl farming materials to that farmer. In 1987, following an arrangement made by the Minister of Marine Resources (at that time the former prime Minister, Dr Pupuke
Robati), Japanese pearl technicians
seeded 10,000 oysters belonging to private farmers om Manihiki. The
Japanese experts were so impressed by
the quality of the oysters in Manihiki that they recommended two seeding programmes be undertaken each year.
As a result of their recommenda tions (and to coincide with the opti
mum seeding period) two Japanese
technicians arrived in Rarotonga in March 1988 to seed 40,000 oysters but for more than a month were de nied access to the island by the Man ihiki Island Council, which declared
that it would not be dictated to bv the central Government some 1000 kilometres away in Rarotonga. It was estimated that local pearl farmers have lost a potential revenue of SNZ2.4 mil lion of the council’s decision.
Manihiki MP Mr Ben Toma, who resides for most of the year in Austra lia, reported that the people of Man ihiki wanted nothing to do with the Department of Marine Resources scheme. He explained that the prob lems surrounding the two Japanese technicians were caused by the De partment of Marine Resources enter ing into an illegal arrangement that was “not in line’’ with the legislated definition of the management of Man ihiki lagoon.
This legislation, which provides for the management of Penrhyn, Raka hanga ana Manihiki lagoons, was pas sed ny Parliament in 1982 and grants power to island Councils over the
pearl shell and pearl farming indus
tries. In essence, it states that no-one may seed, cultivate, collect or harvest any pearl or pearl shell in or from the lagoon unless a permit has been ap plied for and granted by the Island Council.
In denying the two Japanese techni cians access to Manihiki to seed oys ters, the Island Council argued that no local farmers had applied for li cences and that therefore seeding could not take place. Many farmers disputed this claim and subsequently the Council admitted that all local far mers involved with the programme had applied, but while tne licences
had been granted in principle they
had not been signed.
Manihikians also appeared to be misinformed at various public meet ings as to the role of the Department of Marine Resources. Island Council members did not trust the Depart ment, which they felt had given no thing to the Island Council in more than 30 years of operation in the la goon. The island’s people were asked if they wanted the Department of Marine Resources to manage the la goon . . . and were told that if the visit by the two technicians went ahead, the
allegedly iniqitious arrangement would
continue.
Marine Resources Secretary Julian
Dashwood was quick to point out that the Department was simply negotiat
ing and facilitating the seeding and
technical expertise for the local Man ihikian farmers. It also appeared that
many of those who opposed the tech nicians’ visit believed they would only seed one farmer’s shells and that the technicians somehow ‘belonged’ to the farmers, Tekakae Williams.
This belief was encouraged, in September 1987, by the fact that the technicians had seeded 10,000 oysters ... of which 6000 belonged to Wil liams. However, Williams had more than 50,000 oysters prepared while all other farmers had between 500 and 2000 each, of which 500 were seeded under a formula agreed on at a meet ing attended by all the farmers in volved in the programme.
Williams was one of the first to be
gin farming pearls in Manihiki lagoon
at a time wnen there was no legislation covering the use of the lagoon. He is a well-known fisherman and pearl far mer in the Cook Islands (and in 1957 held the record for the world’s deepest skin dive). There is no love lost between the Island Council, MP Ben Toma and Tekake Williams, who has expressed his unwillingness to accept what he sees as the Council’s victimisation of himself and his family when they simply want to get on witn their business of farming pearls.
For most of 1988, local pearl far mers waited for the Council to issue their licences but were given no ex planation for the apparent delay. The
legislation covering the management
of the lagoon makes it possible for any person dissatisfied with a decision of the Island Council to appeal to the Minister of Marine Resources who, af ter consultation with the Island Coun cil, may affirm, vary or reverse the Council’s decision. Unfortunately for the farmers, the prolonged delays meant there was no decision and thus
there was nothing to appeal against.
The Manihiki Council’s decisions
were supported strongly by Ben Toma
and appear to have been influenced by the activities of another company operating in the Manihiki lagoon, Cook Islands Pearls Limited. While Williams and other Manihiki pearl far mers spent most of 1988 waiting for their licences to be issued, Cook Is lands Pearls Limited continued to farm 200,000 oysters (the firm was established in 1986 and is owned by Tahitian Yves Tchen Pan, who also operates a farm in French Polynesia).
Mr Toma maintains that the Island Council has a 30 per cent share in the company, but a search of the company records in Rarotonga indicates that
Yves Tchen Pan holds 95 per cent of the company with the remaining 5 per cent being neld by his wife Henrietta.
Over an eight-month period in 1988 an estimated SNZI.S million was in jected into Tchen Pan’s Manihiki op eration, from which locals derived ancillary benefits in the form of air travel (Yves has his own private plane and no local airline flies regularly to Manihiki), employment and an outlet for the sale of pearl shell. However, the Department of Marine Resources as well as local pearl farmers had ex pressed concern last year following a report from EVAAM (French Polyne
sian Fisheries Agency) questioning
Tchen Pan’s pearl farming practices in
French Polynesia and alleging that his farm has suffered oyster mortality in excess of 60 per cent.
EVAAM also stated that it has had no co-operation from Tchen Pan and that as a result there had been over exploitation of the whole lagoon, with widespread disease. Tchen Pan denied the allegations and labelled the report a “mistake”. His solicitor at the time, Mr Reuben Tvlor, suggested that EVAAM may have haa an ulterior motive in its “deliberate interference with the black pearl industry in Man ihiki; that of protection of their own
pearl industry’'.
According to the Department of Marine Resources, Manihiki is a highly
productive lagoon perfectly suited to
oyster farming, but there is a limit to the number of farmed oysters the la goon can sustain. The Department estimates it could not support in ex cess of 400,000 and has recommended
responsible and co-operative manage
ment of farming to ensure disease problems and depletion of the natural pearl oyster stocks do not arise.
However, the Department’s advice has been ignored and under present management there is no control over
pearl farming practices. If the Depart
ment’s concerns are realised, the fu ture of this emerging industry is threatened.
The dispute has now broadened to a conflict between the traditional Is land Councils and the central Govern ment, as demonstrated by the Manihi ki Council’s recent decision to refuse an official visit by Education and Civil Aviation Minister Ngereteina Puna.
The Minister’s visit was unrelated to the dispute over the management of the pearl industry, but the Council de manded that certain requirements be met by the Minister before it would permit him to visit the island.
Island Council elections are to be held in the outer Islands in the near future, and many Cook Islands hope some changes and that the conflict will be resolved by a new atmosphere of co-operation. □