“Deep seabed environmental management and monitoring”
Honourable Mark Brown, Prime Minister, Cook Islands
- H.E Mr Michael W. Lodge, Secretary-General, International Seabed Authority
- Mr Liu Zhenmin, USG, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Ladies and Gentlemen
Kia Orana, Bula Vinaka, and warm Pacific greetings.
It is my pleasure to address you all as the Pacific Ocean Commissioner and as the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Just last week among the Pacific Forum Leaders with the audience of the President of France, I shared that the ocean is our home and the very thread that link us together as one Pacific Forum family.
The ocean is more than just a body of water, it is our identity, it is our livelihood, and it is who we are.
With 96 per cent of our region being ocean, the ocean is at the heart of our geography, our cultures, and our economies. Enormous responsibility is expected of us to ensure that we, our children, and future generations, continue to benefit from all the ocean’s bounty.
Early this year, our Forum Leaders issued the 2021 Forum Ocean Statement – stating our collective concerns and priorities and a strong demonstration of our resolve to protect our very ocean, our home.
As we gather here today, I commend the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the International Seabed Authority with the support of the Government of Norway in progressing voluntary commitments made to safeguard our ocean. Their support will ensure that this voluntary commitment, made at the UN Ocean Conference in New York in 2017, would be completed before the second UN Ocean Conference. The voluntary commitment enables Nauru, Tonga, Kiribati, and the Cook Islands as sponsoring States to benefit from the Blue Economy through sustainable development of deep seabed resources.
I applaud the important progress made throughout the region, in terms of the implementation of all the 2017 voluntary commitments.
Friends,
This Abyssal Initiative for Blue Growth project, which enables all of us to gather here today, is an opportunity to ensure that you as Sponsoring States are in position to comply with national and international obligations as seabed activities progress. This is an opportunity to ensure the necessary governance structures and mechanisms required for deep seabed activities are in place.
As in many other parts of the world, the prospect of deep-sea mining (DSM) can be contentious and polarizing. It is my view that even as we respect the divergence of issues, there must be common points for mutual engagement. We recognise the importance of an ocean for today, tomorrow, and the future. The intention of the precautionary approach must be embedded and inform any expeditionary or research activity, in the same way that our land and coastal developments must be guided by evidence-based, and proven environmental and impact protocols.
This year marks the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science, which recognizes that we need ocean science to support any policy decisions on the use of our ocean.
And as many of you know, science must go hand in hand with our very own traditional knowledge and practices in our unique Pacific Way to secure collective understanding and commitment to the principles that promote mutual dialogue, especially on contentious or polarized issues.
As one Blue Pacific Continent, we know the power of talanoa, the sharing of and respect for views. Talanoa is a nuanced and powerful space, where we listen, where we are heard.
For our Pacific Forum Leaders, the value of Talanoa became a powerful force for global change and new ways of respecting our Ocean. Talanoa values shaped the Pacific impetus for the shaping of the UNCLOS, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the adoption of the SDG14, and for supporting regionalism itself.
It is difficult work, and not for the faint-hearted. But the power of islands to unite as one ocean people and to move forward as a collective has proven time and again that we can resolve the most complex issues such as this, through open and frank discussions, with respect and a sound appreciation of our differences.
As you are aware, the Leaders endorsed the Framework of the Pacific Oceanscape in 2010, as a catalyst for the effective implementation of ocean policy. It provides for the – role of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, to carry out advocacy of regional ocean priorities. It aims to strengthen regional ocean governance in the Blue Pacific. The Pacific Ocean Alliance helps us coordinate and collaborate to provide ocean policy options that work for our Oceans peoples.
In early 2022, the office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner will convene a meeting of the alliance, to speak to this, and other key priorities as we look towards the UN Ocean Conference. I look forward to your support and hope we will meet in person and talanoa in true Pacific Way.
As the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, it is necessary to support the search for information and knowledge by our large ocean states in the exercise of sovereign decisions which will impact our shared Blue Pacific future. I know you all have the best interests of your people at heart and of the region as a collective, and I can only reiterate the essence and importanceof the precautionary approach in exercising your sovereign rights.
I am committed to working with all stakeholders of the Pacific Ocean Alliance to ensure that our Leaders’ calls and priorities are amplified and progressed across our Blue Pacific.
From individuals, to communities, to regional and on global stages, everyone is making an effort and taking action for the sustainability of our ocean.
From our lands to our seas, across all shores – the population of the Blue Pacific continent combined are but a tiny part of the world’s 7.8 billion people. But our Blue Pacific continent represents the largest ocean of the world.
And we have always known what the science has been telling us all–that the future of our one blue planet depends on a healthy respect for all life above –and below– water.
Meitaki ma’ata, vinaka vakalevu, I thank you.
