Tonga works on ocean Act [1]
Friday, January 25, 2019 - 19:42
A legal workshop to draft an Act for Tonga’s Marine Spatial Plan (MSP) which will oversee its ocean space was discussed by legal advisers and policy experts across government ministries yesterday, 24 January, at the Tanoa Hotel.
The Tonga Ocean Planning and Management Act is expected to be operational by 2020 and will ensure the kingdom’s 700,000km2 of its exclusive economic zone is governed in an ecological and sustainable way.
The workshop was led by Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources CEO, Rosamond Bing with Lilieta Takau from the Department of Environment and Dr Kathryn Mengerink, a Marine Biologist and Executive Director of the Waitt Institute who is assisting with the MSP for Tonga.
The MSP aims to keep the ocean healthy and productive by ensuring food security, conserving biodiversity, minimizing conflicts between users, building climate change resilience and adaptation, protecting and rehabilitating the environment, and ensuring sustainable socio-economic development and use.
In providing an overview of the MSP, Dr Mengerink gave some overseas examples of challenges that were resolved under the plan that she has been involved with such as moving marine routes to avoid popular marine life (such as whales, water birds) routes, sanctioning marine zones for fishing, shipping, mooring, as well as volcanic exclusion zones.
Other key sections of the Act discussed at the workshop include development assessment, funding for sustainable ocean management, regulations and enforcement to ensure compliance as well as legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, community consultation (including the private sector such as tourism operators) on the MSP will be undertaken in Tongatapu and the Niuas between February and April. Consultation has been completed in Vava’u, Ha’apai and ‘Eua.
The results of the consultation will provide input to formulate a draft MSP. Once it is completed, another community consultation will be undertaken for consideration and review later this year.
Over 60 countries around the world use an MSP for their ocean economy.