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Cook Islands Announces Protection Zone for Migrating Oceania Humpback Whales
- On June 12, 2025, delegates from Solomon Islands and Vanuatu officially declared in Nice, France, their plan to establish the Melanesian Ocean Reserve.
- This announcement follows the conception of the reserve at last year's U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia, driven by Indigenous leaders seeking to protect ancestral waters.
- The reserve will cover an area of no less than 6 million square kilometers, incorporating the combined maritime zones of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, and extending to include New Caledonia's Exclusive Economic Zone.
- Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele highlighted that the governments are collaborating to establish a unique marine reserve that respects their cultural identities and spiritual bonds, while Vanuatu's Ralph Regenvanu noted the goal of creating a shared, cross-border area of ocean maintained through traditional practices.
- The creation of this Indigenous-led reserve aims to permit only sustainable activities consistent with Indigenous values and inspire similar initiatives globally to protect biodiverse Pacific waters.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Conservation news
Pacific island nations launch plan for world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve
The governments of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have announced their commitment to create a massive multinational Melanesian Ocean Reserve. If implemented as envisioned, the reserve would become the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve, covering an area nearly as big as the Amazon Rainforest. Speaking at the U.N. Ocean Conference underway in Nice, France, representatives […]
Vanuatu, an archipelago of 83 islands in the South Pacific threatened with submersion by rising sea levels, is turning to international courts to demand action against climate change. On Wednesday (June 10, 2025), representatives from the country participated in the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Ocean in Nice, France, arguing that combating global warming should be treated as a legal obligation of polluting countries. The island state dec…
Melanesian leaders announce world’s largest indigenous-led marine reserve
Nice, – At the UN Ocean Conference, the governments of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu announced their intention to create the Melanesian Ocean Reserve to safeguard the ancestral waters, homelands, and people of the southwestern Pacific.The area is one of the world’s most biodiverse marine regions. Protecting it will secure the economic and cultural vitality of hundreds of distinct Indigenous Peoples while furthering global climate, biodiversity, an…
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