The UK Government is considering declaring the Chagos Archipelago the World’s largest Marine Protected Area, in order to conserve its globally important coral reefs and related ecosystems.
This is a unique and vital opportunity for marine conservation, but the issue is not as simple as that.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has launched a consultation on Chagos (full details can be found here). The consultation proposes three main options for a Marine Protected Area, all of which exclude any kind of fisheries or similar marine activities within the reef areas.
What these options do not take account of are the wishes of the Chagossian community. The islanders were removed from their homeland by the British Government in the late 1960s to make way for the US military base on Diego Garcia. They have been campaigning ever since for their right to return.
The full no-take protection of reef areas (as proposed by the consultation) would provide no means for resettled islanders to utilise their marine resources for subsistence or income generation. Communities and Marine Protected Areas coexist across the world, and there is no reason why the islanders could not be successful stewards of their coral reef environment.
We endorse the efforts of the Foreign Secretary to protect the marine ecosystems of the Chagos archipelago but we call on him to work with the Chagos islanders and the Government of Mauritius to devise an MPA solution that makes provision for resettlement and protects Mauritius’ legitimate interests. Click here to view the letter to David Miliband.
We need your help to give this campaign the biggest possible impact.
Please sign the petition below and support our campaign to protect both the marine ecosystem of the Chagos archipelago and the rights of its exiled community.
Please act soon, the consultation closes on 12 February 2010.
You do not have to provide us with details of your occupation or institutional affiliation, but if you would like to, please use the 'other' box for these details. It does help strengthen the petition to know the walks of life from which signatories come.
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View petition (951 signatures)
http://www.marineeducationtrust.org/petition/protect-chagos
AdR heeft een nieuwe reactie op uw bericht "NATO 3" achtergelaten:
Voor deze petitie - om bij Vincent aan te haken - is haast geboden: morgenavond sluit zij.
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