![]() It has created one of the world’s largest marine protected areas containing over 120 varieties of coral and 520 fish species, implemented a number of measures to deal with illegal and unreported fishing, and spearheaded the Pacific Oceanscape Initiative, a regional framework for marine conservation. ![]() The Government of Kiribati is taking vital steps towards protecting its marine resources, for its wildlife and its people. Countries like Kiribati face significant impacts from rising sea level and increasing ocean acidification. It is our life.”īut this resource is under threat, from climate change, pollution and over-fishing, with more than 786,000 tonnes of fish taken illegally from the Pacific every year. We have no other way of surviving, it is our main source of income. Every day, Toarine Itinnaa markets the fish that her husband catches out at sea at a small street-side stall. It is difficult to over-state their importance. People living in small island countries rely on healthy oceans for feeding their families and providing their income, more than in other parts of the world. In all respects, Kiribati is always trying to maintain that balance.” At this stage the Pacific has the only healthy tuna stock in the world so there are obligations to sustain that. “But of course there are also issues in the fishing world. 60 percent of the global tuna catch is now drawn from the Western and Central Pacific ocean. Swimming through the vast expanse of Kiribati’s exclusive economic zone is one of the country’s richest and most abundant resources, some of the world’s last remaining tuna. Young people, the men go out fishing, and then the women sell the fish along the roads.”įisheries are a critical source of income in a poor country. And in our day, we get money also from our ocean. “We eat fish in the morning for breakfast, we eat fish for lunch and we eat fish at dinner time. “We call the sea in Kiribati our Mother Ocean,” said Claire Anterea, Convenor of the Climate Action Network in Kiribati. With no refrigeration, fish is caught and sold on a daily basis, with about 80 percent of the population engaged in fishing for their livelihoods. You are never more than 500 meters away from the sea, and it permeates i-Kiribati culture, provides nearly all of the country’s food and more than half of its GDP. Made up of 32 atolls and one island spread over 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean, an area about the size of India, the remote Pacific island nation of Kiribati has the biggest water to land ratio in the world. In this region whole economies and populations depend on fisheries for their survival. ![]() Democratic Republic of Congo - FrançaisĪugust 29, 2012, Kiribati - This week is the Pacific Islands Forum and leaders from around the world are discussing the importance of healthy oceans, a particularly pressing issue for the small countries of the Pacific.
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