conservation
pp. 4-5 · Read in the full issue
Culture and conservation
Dear Sir, Bernadette Hussein’s report
(Pacific Islands Monthly
October, 1996) and Inge Mathiesen’s comments (PIM December, 1996) irritate me for such cheap journal ism and suggest that these reports should not have been published in the first place.
No wonder we find a number of our gov ernments trying to mitigate the freedom
our good journalists!
The bottom line here is Hussein’s story is poorly researched, politically, culturally and traditionally insensitive to the governments of the Forum Island Countries and, importantly, did very well in insulting the government and the peo ple of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).
Let me elaborate and give you my reasons: • Every sovereign nation is entitled to extract and exploit her land and marine resources in a sustainable manner (under the UNCED Treaty) and incorporating environmental and conservation mea sures. • The Pacific Island governments have always sustained their land and marine resources through their tradition al and cultural practices for generations, until western ideologies, financial con straints and competitive international trade (north versus south issues) forced the Island governments to exploit their already limited natural base resources to keep their heads above the oceans rather than sink into the already complicated
global trade wars, for example, exporting
turtle meat and shells outside the region.
Is it worth it? Why not target your report at importers and exporters in this region?
The political leaders of the Forum
Island Countries (FIC) are very much aware of the turtle plight at global and regional levels - the reason why they endorsed and supported the regional pro gramme implemented by the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and known as 1995 The Year of the Turtle. (Write to the so-called the “Turtle lady” in SPREP she would love to give you all the assis tance you require.) Their actions are very visible at their national level as well, for your information.
Marine biodiversity/resources,
including fish, crayfish, whales, birds, coral reefs and turtles, are harvested as food in a sustainable manner in all the islands.
The catching and killing of turtles in itself is traditionally, culturally accept able and takes into account conservation concerns.
In the majority of PIC, only certain groups/clans or islanders are allowed to catch turtles.
For your information, the RMI inci dent is no different here. The chief/lead er of one of the outer islands in RMI tra ditionally presents this offering of turtles as the highest honour or gift to the pres ident/paramount chief of RMI and his special guests (leaders of forum coun tries), including the journalists - did you taste this meat or did you insult your host?
The harvesting and eating of turtles in Majuro in RMI in its purest form in a tra ditional and cultural setting is a mark of respect from one chief to another in the midst of all the leaders and their guests,
including journalists in the region.
There are a lot of important issues here and I hope outsiders realise them; protection and conservation of turtles or any so-called endangered species does not mean that we stop eating our marine resources.
Eating turtles once a year being acceptable to our leaders at this very spe cial cultural setting is understandable, don’t you agree? Mindful of managing our marine resources, I will have my tur tle meat when it is served to me as part of any of the islands’ cultural obliga tions.
Give credit to the leaders of the FIC, including the people of RMI, who have endorsed and started implementing a tur tle and biodiversity conservation pro gramme at national and regional levels to take our outside friends’ interest into account as well. 1997 is the Year of the Coral Reef, organised by SPREP. I have a number of suggestions: let’s look at conservation of koala bears or kangaroos (Australia) or possums (New Zealand).
Any other suggestions?
Who said conservation of marine
resources is a more important priority than the people of the Pacific? Yes, a brilliant programme just surfaced - con servation of endangered Pacific people in the plight of global warming and sea level rise coupled with environmental changes coordinated by the South Pacific Commission would be an ideal issue.
The challenge of managing and developing the scarce land and ocean resources in Pacific Islands is awesome,
especially when incorporating conserva
tion, cultural, social and traditional aspects. Give the governments of PICs, and especially RMI, the respect and dig
nity they deserve in maintaining their
cultural and traditional values in enhanc ing their conservation and economic pro grammes.
Finally, a cheap and poorly researched report is as good a part of a trash bin when it is produced today.
Makania Ehor
Nadi Fiji
Dear Sir Timeon loane of Honolulu used two words in his letter to the edi tor (Pacific Islands Monthly December, 96): “radical conservation ists”.
My reply: what chance did a handful of whales have (25 years ago) to stay alive against a world population (1972) of over 4,000,000,000 people? Who was on the way to extinction in 1972? The whales or humans? What does it look like, loane? Because the world popula tion will reach close to 7,000,000,000 people by the year 2000, the human race is hardly on its way out; we are on the way towards a population explosion.
Unfortunately, still too many people around the globe do not know the mean ing of the word birthcontrol.
Thanks to Greenpeace, there is still fish in the oceans. Greenpeace did lead the fight to outlaw 50km-long driftnets the walls of death - killing between 250,000 and 300,000 dolphins each year, plus half a million sea birds, many whales, etc besides fish.
And last, but not least, loane, how would you like to be put on your back, unable to move whatsoever in the boil ing hot sun on a beach for hours, getting roasted alive, like the sea turtles a few months ago in the Marshall Islands?
Animals feel pain too, just like humans do.
Inge Mathiesen
Montana