Oceanian Sovereignty: rethinking conservation in a sea of islands

Abstract

In an age of dramatic environmental and ecological challenges, the dynamics of sovereignty associated with the conservation of natural resources in Oceania are in flux. This article draws on the transformative work of Tongan anthropologist and political philosopher Epeli Hau‘ofa to articulate characteristics of an Oceanian Sovereignty that illuminate ongoing conceptual shifts around conservation in this region. In the wake of intensifying and accelerating environmental challenges from global warming and other hazard drivers, understanding Indigenous peoples and local communities’ deeply rooted and emerging perceptions and conceptions of rights over, responsibilities towards, and respect for, nature is a critical context for necessary transformations within conservation science, policy and practice. The articulation of sovereignty that we identify in Hau‘ofa sheds light on how Oceania’s peoples are asserting rights to make choices about the environmental futures of ocean and island spaces. Oceanian Sovereignty emphasises past, present and future obligations enacted though sustainable use in partnership with an ancestral ocean deeply embedded in cultural identity as a basis of governance rather than in legal and political arguments grounded in the constitutions of states. The resultant nature politics are exemplified in what we term tidal thinking. Tidal thinking refers to Indigenous and local peoples’ fluid responses to current challenges around conservation and sustainable management of island and ocean futures and the linked wellbeing of human and non-human entities within them. We conclude with a number of conservation practice, governance, and policy implications that tidal thinking around Oceanian Sovereignty entails.

Towards resilience in the Anthropocene: transforming conservation biology through Indigenous perspectives

“…Indigenous sovereignty is a relevant emergent theme of this Special Issue and three papers focus on different aspects of sovereignty. Tamatoa Bambridge, Paul D'Arcy and Alexander Mawyer's paper 'Oceanian Sovereignty: rethinking conservation in a sea of islands' borrows Tongan philosopher Epeli Hau'ofa's title from a 1994 essay 'Our sea of islands' (Bambridge et al 2021). The authors ask us to reimagine the ocean and islands within an Oceanian Sovereignty.…”

The Concept of Oceanian Sovereignty in the Context of Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific Region

“…If moral and ethical responsibility, openness, and interconnection are indeed to be the watchwords of progress in the twenty-first century (Kacenelenbogen, 2010(Kacenelenbogen, , 2017 then these concepts should be paramount in guiding the design of a pertinent regulatory framework establishing standards and guidelines for DSM-that is, inclusive and based on a recognition of the politics of mining as "embedded in a world of things, bodies, networks, and socio-economic relations" (Bakker and Bridge, 2006). An essential first step in that direction would be to consider vast oceanic spaces as not only bursting with precious (and mostly unknown in the deep) life, but also as a highly social and political locus, a "voluminous" (Bridge, 2013;Elden, 2013) or "ontological" space, that is, a political-even moral-actor in its own right (Lehman, 2013;Steinberg and Peters, 2015) and which is woven through with what we identify as dynamic issues of Oceanian sovereignty (Bambridge et al, 2021).…”

“…First articulated in the 1990s by Tongan-Fijian scholar Epeli Hau'ofa, "Oceanian Sovereignty" is a concept linking the right to make decisions on land and ocean spaces to cultural stewardship/guardianship developed in, and unique to, the Pacific Islands. 1 This concept is highly relevant to the seabed mining debate and should arguably be integrated more in scientific-based policies and legal frameworks (Hau'ofa, 1994;Mulalap et al, 2020;Bambridge et al, 2021). In this regard, it is notable that Cook Islands' marine use policy involves widespread community consultation and accommodates various forms of the Blue Economy within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including marine species' protection (traditionally "ra'ui"-based) and seabed mining within the Marae Moana ("ocean sanctuary") (Cook Islands Government, 2016).…”

“…In this regard, it is notable that Cook Islands' marine use policy involves widespread community consultation and accommodates various forms of the Blue Economy within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including marine species' protection (traditionally "ra'ui"-based) and seabed mining within the Marae Moana ("ocean sanctuary") (Cook Islands Government, 2016). Indeed, lessons learned from the collapse of Nautilus' seabed mining operation in 2019 in the Papua New Guinea due to a lack of consent of local communities (Rosenbaum and Grey, 2016;Filer et al, 2020), demonstrate that DSM and all aspects of the Blue Economy must include sensitivity to, and engagement with, local Pacific communities and sovereignty forms, as articulated by the concept of "Oceanian sovereignty, " which is the foundation of holistic ecosystem-based and customary-based relationships (Blue Ocean Law and Pacific Network on Globalisation, 2016;Childs, 2019;Bambridge et al, 2021;Tilot et al, 2021a,b).…”

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this paper proposes to discuss the relevance and efficacy of the concept of "Oceanian Sovereignty" (Bambridge et al, 2021) in the context of Deep Sea Mining, from the different legal, environmental, anthropological, social, political, and economic science perspectives. The policies and practices developed in the Pacific in this context could well serve as a suitable model elsewhere to reconcile competing perspectives in addition to sustaining the Human Well-being and Sustainable Livelihoods (HWSL) and the health of the Global Ocean.

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