Federated States of Micronesia fourth national report: implementation of article 6 of the convention of biological diversity

Abstract

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is at a critical juncture. The Constitution of the FSM – ratified in 1978 at the dawn of the federation’s young nationhood – states: “We affirm our common wish to live together in peace and harmony, to preserve the heritage of the past, and to protect the promise of the future...to become the proud guardian of own islands, now and forever.” Preserving the heritage of the past and protecting the promise of the future is a reference to the biological wealth of the FSM and its continued viability contingent upon long-term stewardship. Sixteen years after becoming an independent nation on the world stage the FSM ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994. Seven years thereafter, in 2001, the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) was developed as a national strategy that illuminates the nation’s Constitutional prerogative with specific goals, objectives and actions that seek to not only maintain the deeply rooted environmental morals of the traditional lifestyle of the FSM, but to also achieve the international standards of the CBD. A mere five years later, in 2006, the FSM, along with the Republic of Palau and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), it’s autonomous sister island neighbors in the North Pacific to the east and to the west, along with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam, brought the Micronesian Ethic to the world in the seminal announcement of the Micronesia Challenge at the 8th Convention of the Parties in Curitiba, Brazil.