Opposition to the 2008 Pew national monument campaign in the Marianas Islands
Time period: November 2007 to 5 January 2009
The Pew Environment Group (Pew) launched an arrogant and culturally insensitive environmental campaign in
the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) during late 2007. Pew's objective was to
convince the people of the CNMI to support their monument proposal in order to create a 'blue legacy' for
former President George W. Bush prior to his leaving office in January 2009. The Pew national monument, as
it was locally called, involved the permanent conversion of over 115,000 square miles of waters within the
CNMI Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) into basically a 'no-take' marine preserve here.
Pew wanted to create
another Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Hawaii) in CNMI waters.
The 2008 Pew campaign was based primarily on half-truths and promises of supposed benefits the CNMI would receive
from the federal Government. The approach they took to 'educating' the Marianas was to lecture down to us as if we were children.
Instead of incorporating concerns raised by the indigenous community and their leaders into their monument plan; Pew
basically ignored all arguments that didn't fit with their 'no-take' and 'anti-fishing' agenda. Therefore, their original
monument proposal remained unchanged throughout the campaign.
The following quote from Mr. Joshua Reichert, Managing Director of the Pew Environment Group, exemplifies the attitude
of the Pew monument campaign: "I don't want someone who knows the facts, or can articulate them persuasively;
I want someone who wants to win and knows how."Source
There was strong opposition to the Pew monument proposal beginning when it was first presented publicly
during a strategic planning workshop held during November 2007 by the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance
(MINA); an environmental non-government organization based in Saipan. It was very obvious to some that
Pew's monument proposal was nothing more than an unjustified ploy to permanently take away fishing and
extraction (e.g., oil, gas, and mineral) rights from the Marianas people and give it to a federal agency that
would follow Pew's preservationist management requirements under the guise of environmental protection.
The Director of the Pew Global Ocean Legacy Program (Mr. Jay Nelson) tried unsuccessfully to convince
MINA to take the lead in their monument campaign. In true Pew form, he even offered to provide operating
funds to sweeten the deal for MINA. Although support was divided at the Board level, MINA ultimately
decided to decline Pew's monetary 'donation'.
Supporting the strong opposition by the indigenous communities and CNMI Government to the Pew monument proposal were leaders
from Guam, Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Marshall Islands. Also brought out in their
jointly signed letter of opposition was the insensitive approach that Pew adopted in forcing their proposal on the
people of the Marianas. In the end, the Pew monument proposal was outright rejected by the Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ) on behalf of the White House. The current Marianas Trench Marine National Monument is the result of one-on-one
negotiations between CNMI Government leaders (Governor Benigno Fitial, Senate President Pete Reyes, and House Speaker
Arnold Palacios) and the CEQ. Only then were the concerns of the local indigenous population appropriately addressed.
On 6 January 2009, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument here
was unilaterally created by former
President George W. Bush in Presidential Proclamation 8335 under the powers granted to his office by the
Antiquities Act of 1906. Despite the rhetoric from the environmentalists, I believe the real reasons for
designating the
Pacific monuments include: (1) it created a 'blue legacy' for former President George W. Bush who left office
with a
less than stellar environmental record; (2) it was a cheap and easy gift to pacify the whining of US mainland
environmental organizations; (3) the Pacific region was a soft target with few people and even less political
clout; (4) it
further supported the Global Ocean Legacy program (offshoot of Pew Environment Group program) goal of
establishing 3 to 4 large "no-take" ocean preserves; and (5) it firmly establishes US sovereignty in the Western
Pacific
in coordination with the US military buildup in the Marianas.
The purpose of this project is to get the opposition's story out to the public. Their version of what was happening in
the Marianas was often mis-characterized (or completely ignored) by US mainland media who appeared to follow the lead of full
time spin-doctors employed by the well organized and funded environmental groups supporting the monuments (e.g. Pew
Charitable Trusts). Their media experts crafted public information in a manner that presented exactly what they wanted
the public to hear. The Marianas monument campaign is a classic example of political environmentalism at its worst.
MarianasConservation.org has assembled most of the pertinent opposition information that chronicles the Pew monument campaign
in the Marianas. We hope it will educate those who believe the Pew monument campaign was conducted in a fair and impartial
manner - as Pew would have you believe. Additionally, it will also provide the gory details on the deceitful campaign
practices practiced by Pew and their followers in order to create the illusion that there was broad grass-roots support for
the Pew monument plan.
We in the Marianas hope that other communities never have to experience what we had to go through with the Pew Environment
Group.
Marianas Conservation
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
June 2009
The 2008 Pew campaign was based primarily on half-truths and promises of supposed benefits the CNMI would 
The purpose of this project is to get the opposition's story out to the public. Their version of what was happening