Lessons for ocean advocates from the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition
Photo Credit: Jim Maragos - USFWS
PRI Marine National Monument
The journey of the Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) Coalition is an approach worth exploring for those working on ocean conservation and management across the world. In what might seem like an endless journey of protection measures the group is currently supporting a nomination process to establish a National Marine Sanctuary that would overlay the boundary of the PRI Marine National Monument (and in a few locations, expand it), which already encompasses approximately 1,282,533 square kilometers (495,189 square miles) of some of the most pristine tropical marine environments in the world.
Several members of the PRI Coalition accepted the invitation to share vital lessons that may help other organizations and communities committed to supporting large-ocean initiatives work more effectively with stakeholders, managers, and government agencies.
Q&A with the PRI Coalition
(1) For those who might not be familiar with the Coalition, what is the best description of the group?
We are a Coalition of elders, fishers, cultural practitioners, navigators, scientists, nonprofit leaders, and storytellers from across Oceania who have worked together for the last decade to protect the Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) and the ocean that connects us.
(2) Why did the PRI Coalition feel it was essential to expand protection measures – and why now?
One of our members calls us ‘opihi hunters, comparing our ocean protection work to the precarious task of picking treasured ‘opihi (limpets) from the rocks at the right time, between crashing waves. Opportunities are about timing––and the time is now.
While the existing monument provides some protections for PRI, the area remains vulnerable to ongoing threats from purse seine fishing and new extractive industries, like deep-sea mining. Climate change also makes protecting this special place all the more urgent, especially as PRI contains some of the last wild and healthy ocean ecosystems on Earth. Additionally, the Biden Administration’s promise to safeguard at least 30% of U.S. waters and international 30x30 commitments present an important opening in the surf to take action for PRI.
Native Hawaiians, Indigenous Chamoru, and other Pacific members of the Coalition submitted a national marine sanctuary nomination to President Biden that outlined our request for an inclusive process to protect, rename, and design a co-management structure for PRI.
Because we have worked across four U.S. administrations to protect this vast expanse of ocean, experience has taught us that communities must secure and maintain access to the latest scientific data to address ever-changing baselines and stakeholder viewpoints. We must also remain steadfast in our commitment to uplifting intergenerational knowledge and learning, cultural practices, and community-centered decision-making processes.
As political cycles rarely align with community cycles, let alone nature’s cycles, we are continually refining our strategy, engaging partners from a wide variety of contexts with skills and expertise different from but complementing our own. We move at the speed of trust, which can seem slow for those unfamiliar with Pacific cultures. As our Coalition’s work is lifelong, we look beyond the needs of today to prioritize what is important for future generations.
(3) Given the uncertainty surrounding the presidential election, do you feel the investment has been worthwhile?
We live in challenging, uncertain times requiring greater adaptability and resilience. Our initiative to protect PRI predates the Biden administration and will persist long after, regardless of the presidential election outcomes.
While the Coalition submitted the original nomination to expand protections for PRI, the Biden Administration is now leading the charge through a presidential directive that complements our requests. That said, our role remains the same in many ways. Our Coalition is committed to advocating for and supporting an inclusive national marine sanctuary process that engages and elevates the voices of Pacific communities around increased protections. Our function is to support and hold government agencies accountable and weigh in with commmunity-based guidance along the way toward this goal. Our mission is fulfilled through ongoing relationship-building with local and national law and policymakers. The majority of our work is about managing relationships and partnerships.
If the tides turn, we are prepared to take measures to safeguard the hard-won protections already in place. We know other community groups face the same challenge of working, sometimes for decades, to achieve protections and policy wins, only to spend many more years protecting them. As such, we have found that it is critical to have diverse Coalition members who differ in age, gender, cultural background, and life experience. We are also conscious that succession planning is vital; we document experiences and processes, the good and the bad, to ensure sufficient institutional knowledge is brought to the negotiation table in times of crisis.
This is all part of the complex work and, undoubtedly, a worthwhile investment.
(4) How has the Coalition worked to bridge US government processes with community and cultural values since they are based on very different worldviews?
We constantly navigate the complex work of ocean protection within a government framework we did not choose, and this stark reality is made more challenging during an unpredictable election year like 2024. Our Coalition has had to lean into our role as bridge builders between government agencies and communities to support the shared goal of a healthy ocean. Sometimes this looks like requesting a call or attending a public meeting; other times, it might be inviting agency staff or managers to a facilitated discussion or workshop or even traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. Congressional Representatives and agency administrators.
The relationship between many Pacific communities and the United States is complex. Although the PRI is basically unpopulated, colonialism’s impacts are clear and felt quite intensely today. Further, this grouping of atolls and geographic features into a single marine monument is itself a Western construct. Yet, at this time, U.S. marine designations also present an essential pathway to ensure vital ecosystems remain intact and cultural practices and worldviews are incorporated into management.
Ironically, PRI is under U.S. jurisdiction in part because of the brave sacrifices of the Hui Panalāʻau - a group of 130 primarily Native Hawaiian young men - who were sent by the government to occupy the islands as places of strategic importance before World War II. The war - and colonialism - also left its mark on a group of Chamoru men known as the Wake Island Defenders, many of whom lost their lives and were taken as prisoners of war after their heroic efforts to fortify Wake Island when it was attacked. Yet again, Indigenous Pacific Islanders suffered the devastating consequences of geopolitics.
With this in mind, we see our role as advocating for the representation and elevation of Indigenous worldviews, values, and voices in government processes nationally and internationally. Our nomination to the U.S. for expanded protections was interconnected with our requests for an inclusive renaming process and co-management structure that brings together Indigenous Pacific Islander communities within and beyond U.S. jurisdiction.
(5) How does the Coalition create lines of communication across the largest ocean on the planet?
As the Coalition aims to build bridges between and among multiple Pacific communities, we often utilize digital technologies and social media platforms. Face-to-face relationship building is vital, but the costs can be prohibitive. We work to secure travel funds with or as part of partner projects, and we often leverage existing regional and international conservation or cultural events to act as convening spaces for in-person connections.
At the recent 13 Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPac) held in Honolulu this past June, our cousins from 25 Pacific Nations sang, danced, celebrated, and shared knowledge and practices from both ancient and contemporary sources. Our Coalition was honored to support a gathering of Pacific practitioners who came together to deepen relationships and unify around protecting our ocean. We also shared information about our work to protect the Pacific Remote Islands, including opportunities to get involved at FestPac and beyond.
FestPac was also the backdrop to in-person listening sessions for a renaming process the Biden Administration initiated based on our original request. Before FestPac, the agencies led a virtual interview process. We were hopeful that input from in-person conversations would help identify potential names that celebrated the cross-cultural connections symbolized by the PRI. We were so pleased that the renaming process drew participants from American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), French Polynesia, Guam, Hawai‘i, Kingdom of Tonga, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Republic of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, and United States of America.
While improvement is needed from both the private and public sectors, it is essential to acknowledge the efforts being made to design processes that favor community and culture over bureaucracy and red tape.
(6) Co-management usually means a group of agencies from the same government are tasked with working together. What does Co-Management mean to the Coalition, and what are you hoping to achieve, even if it is a more involved process?
For the PRI Coalition, co-management means a collaborative governance structure that is not limited to government agencies but includes community groups and other stakeholders. Our goal is to ensure Indigenous Pacific Islanders are part of the decision-making process for future management, especially for culturally significant places where we have ancestral ties.
Nearly a decade ago, many of the Coalition members, who were then a part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Reserve Advisory Council and the Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, advocated to elevate the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to a co-trustee position within the management structure for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM). Their efforts set an important precedent. Today, PNMN is governed by four co-trustees: the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State of Hawaiʻi through the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to represent Native Hawaiian interests pertaining to activities in the monument, including Native Hawaiian customary and traditional rights and practices exercised for subsistence, cultural and religious purposes under the Hawaiʻi Constitution.
We can structure co-management in various ways, and the process of creating the framework is as important as the outcome. As we scope co-management models for other protected areas, such as PRI, we can learn from our collective experiences with PMNM and models like Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Areas (CBSFAs) and Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs). Given the cross-cultural connections, it will be essential to work across national boundaries to co-develop an inclusive, appropriate decision-making structure that elevates Indigenous Pacific Islanders in marine governance and management.
(7) Since government agencies manage Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas, why should a community organization like the PRI Coalition get involved?
Community organizations play a crucial role in large-scale marine protection by bringing the perspective and knowledge of local on-the-ground stakeholders. We are structured as a Coalition to invite a diversity of views, experiences, and expertise into our advocacy work because it makes our efforts stronger and more grounded.
While we are not leading the formal process for marine designations, we hold government agencies accountable for that process. We provide guidance, informed by diverse cultural and other stakeholder groups, and galvanize broader engagement that brings more voices to the table. Communities often advocate harder because so much more is at stake for us.
Election cycles limit us to a short-term agenda when successful Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas inherently require a multigenerational approach.
Communities are not going anywhere. We are in it for the long haul.