More work by officials needed on Marine Park proposal

A year ago on 18 May 2010 the then Democratic Party government Cabinet under PM Marurai approved a series of meetings of interested parties and that a policy be developed.
Here we are a year later and still no policy has been developed by officials and there is no record of any meetings with the most important interested party of all, the general public and the people of the outer islands.
The Herald on Wednesday reported that the Marine Park proposal had been deferred four times, once by the Demo government Cabinet and three times by the CIP government Cabinet.
The records however show that the Demo Cabinet appears to have deferred the proposal four times.
The proposal was presented to Cabinet on 23 March 2010 by PM Marurai. A decision was deferred until comments were received from NES and Marine.
The proposal was resubmitted on 6 April 2010 and the concept was approved subject to research and consultation. Also approved was the establishment of a Marine Park Charitable Trust.
On 18 May 2010 Cabinet approved that a series of meetings of interested parties be convened and that a policy be developed. Also Cabinet approved the formal establishment of the Charitable Trust to manage and market the Marine Park. Then Marine Minister Rasmussen was to represent the Crown on the Trust.
Cabinet directed Crown Law to work on completing the Trust Deed as well as the regulatory framework for the establishment of the Marine Park.
Although the previous government made these approvals and directives, they were not implemented.
It was maintained that setting up a Marine Park would not impose any total ban on fishing or sea bed mining but rather ensure these activities were conducted in a sustainable manner.
The claim was that there would be economic potential in marketing the Cook Islands as having the world’s largest marine park.
The trust would be self sustaining with funding from overseas donors.
In its response to the recent submission of the proposal to Cabinet last Tuesday, the Ministry for Marine commented that the Cook Islands would not have the world’s largest marine park. That title is held by the Phoenix Islands (Kiribas) Park. The Phoenix Park is the largest registered with UN ESCO as a world heritage park. While Kiribas and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have unique marine life, the proposed Cook Islands Marine Park would not. In fact say Ministry of Marine, the Cook Islands has no biodiversity that would qualify it to be a World Heritage site and that no amount of aggressive marketing will change this.
Marine say the proposal looked like a “cut and paste” job using the Phoenix Islands Park documents.
The Ministry of marine has recommended that the Marine Park Trust Deed not be endorsed until there are clear objectives and policies developed after government organized public consultations. Further, that the deed should be circulated by government for public comment and that no conflict should arise between the deed and the functions of Ministries under the Marine Resources and Sea Bed Mining legislation.
In its comments on the Marine Park proposal, MFEM raised issues concerning the good governance principles of transparency and accountability in the administration of Trust funds as it was proposed that all revenue and expenditure of funds raised by the Trust would not be governed by the MFEM Act and therefore will not go through the Budget process.
The above concerns aside, there are some interesting points which are;
(1) Were any comments sought from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs given there are the provisions of international treaties to consider?
(2) Why is the proposal being driven through the OPM when the most appropriate agency is NES?
(3) Why did the Central Agencies Committee (CAC) support the proposal given no policies or objectives had been written?
(4) How many jobs will the proposal create for Cook Islanders, especially outer islanders?
(5) What is the projected benefit to the Cook Islands economy?
(6) What are the names of the people behind this proposal?
(7) Why didn’t the people behind the proposal conduct public meetings?
Any government knows that conservation of areas that may become endangered is vital. The concept of a Marine Park is very good but it must be organized properly and carefully.
It has turned out that a great deal more ground work needs to be done before Cabinet considers this proposal again.
The public needs to have confidence that civil servants have done their homework and that Cabinet should not approve submissions lacking vital information.
Looks like it’s back to the drawing board, but this time, get it right.

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