Transcript
KEVIN BAUTISTA: Today the work remains unfinished for a management plan that is supposed to provide for public education programmes, traditional access by our indigenous persons, scientific exploration and research, consideration of recreational fishing that will not detract from the monument and programmes for monitoring and enforcement. In a nutshell it is essentially that we have not reaped the benefits that we were promised during the initial planning stages of the monument itself. Quite frankly, there is a uniform agreement within CNMI leadership right now, that we are following through with President Trump and his administration has asked for, which allows for a complete review of all marine national monuments and other national monuments in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior.
KORO VAKA'UTA: What is the governor in particular wanting to happen here because I know back in March the governor was supporting an upgrade from monument to ocean sanctuary, is that still in the pipeline or is he wanting a complete start from scratch?
KB: The national marine sanctuary has been a priority of both Governor Torres and Congressman Gregorio Camacho Sablan. They actually happened to draft a joint letter a couple of months ago, moving the monument to an actual marine sanctuary, that would put it in better standing in terms of actually balancing both the environmental protection aspect as well as giving the local people an opportunity to have access to the waters as well as establish a better co-management plan.
KV: If it's not working under the monument status, is there the reassurance that it would work under a sanctuary upgrade?
KB: That is the intent of the letter. Harking back to the main impetus of the letter itself. The federal government is there to provide the necessary resources to realise the promises to the CNMI during the negotiations for the creation of the monument itself. It goes back to the whole thing about the establishment of a co-management plan, an increase of patrols for illegal fishing in the waters of the CNMI. Other incentives such as the building of a national visitors centre that would have helped reap economic benefits for the island itself and mitigate for the loss of access to our natural resources. While we support the environmental goals and protections behind the creation of the monument, we have seen the monument designation under the Antiquities Act to be a burden of an over-expansive federal programme that should be reassessed. The Commonwealth is taking every opportunity to provide a public comment based of what the White House has asked states and territories and commonwealths to provide.
KV: I understand that the Senate has been quite scathing in saying that national marine sanctuaries are neither wanted nor needed in the CNMI.
KB: The national marine sanctuary was an avenue in which we were able to or more able to balance out the environmental protections of our natural resources as well as being able to properly have a say in the co-management plan. Because of the way the federal government has intentionally expanded itself through the monument designation and has not been able to have us have a seat at the table in terms of actually providing a better say of what our actual resources are, are our traditional fishing practices as well as being stewards of our environment, it prompted this action by both the governor, the CNMI leadership, senate, as well as having some discussions from the congressional delegate.
