Kiribati to open 408K sq km PIPA marine reserve for commercial fishing

Kiribati has anunced that it will soon open one of world's largest marine protected areas to commercial fishing to boost ecomic befits for its citizens. decision was confirmed by Kiribati President's office in a press release published on Monday.

“Our decision as a sovereign country and Government is people-centric and commensurate with holistic options for marine protection and manment, ecomic diversification, sustainable tourism and fisheries, to promote growth of Kiribati’s blue ecomy, and uplift lives of all I-Kiribati,” statement re as reported by Guardian.

Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) covers approximately 408,250 square kilometres of a marine reserve and was established in year 2006, with whole region proclaimed a "-take" territory in 2015, prohibiting commercial fishing. 

tably, country constituting a group of islands in central Pacific, has an Exclusive Ecomic Zone (EEZ) bigger than India and harvests 700,000 tons of tuna each year, Guardian reported. 

However, decision is unlikely to take effect before next year, according to a statement by Dr Richard Jeo, senior vice president of Conservation International's Asia-Pacific field office. Dr Jeo was quoted by Guardian as saying that "in ir understanding" proposition to open protected zone has t yet been brought to Kiribati's Parliament. 

Decision needs to be formally approved by Parliament

“It would need to be formally approved by parliament before going into effect, which would likely t be until next year at earliest,” Dr Jeo was quoted by Guardian as saying.  

Jeo also expressed optimism that Kiribati will keep marine protected area designation for PIPA and choose to proceed as a global conservation pioneer, furr "standing lockstep with a global community that is committed to protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030.”  

Kiribati suffered over Rs 1,000 crore loss after banning commercial fishing in PIPA

Meanwhile,  Kiribati ministration stated that when PIPA was founded, it guaranteed that nation would be able to retrieve funds lost from fishing permits, which account for over 70% of country's total yearly revenue. nation claimed that this did t happen.  

Furr, years after its commencement, government claimed that PIPA was insufficient to dress current demands of Kiribati's population and nation's upcoming developmental requirements. According to government, after PIPA was closed to commercial fishing, demand for fishing in Kiribati's EEZ dropped by 8%, resulting in a loss of revenue of up to $146 million (Rs 1087.18 crore) from 2015 till w. 

(Im: AP/Representative)