Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 6, 1 June 1990 — Trustees call for clean Pacific ecosystem [ARTICLE]

Trustees call for clean Pacific ecosystem

by Ann L. Moore Pacific Island people must raise their voices before the world and assert their rights to a elean and environmentally safe Pacific Oeean. That is the substance of a recent resolution in whieh trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs unanimously raised their voices in defense of the Pacific Oeean ecosystem. Trustees said they are committed to supporting a elean and safe natural environment for OHA's beneficiaries, and particularly a elean and safe oeean. They urged Pacific Island people to embrace the pnneiple of "prior informed consent." That means the people being acted upon must be told in advance what is proposed and what the effects will be, then must be given a ehanee to study any proposal and comment on it.

Industrial nations of the world must take responsibility for their own obsolete ehemieal weapons and toxic wastes and those nations must develop ways to get rid of the toxic waste at the same time they are developing them, the trustees' resolution said. Trustees pointed out there is an ever-changing and unpredictable force and range of oeean currents. The tectonic plates of the Pacific rim are constantly shifting and the Pacific rim ecosystem is in fragile balance. For these reasons the present pollution and the threat of future polluhon threatens the delicate halanee of the Pacific ecosystem. Such a threat cannot be tolerated and must be vigorously opposed, trustees said. OHA, as the single, most-representative voice of the Hawaiians and native Hawaiians has a duty, its trustees felt, to take all steps necessary to pro-

tect and safeguard the people's right to live in a safe and elean environment, and to enjoy a safe and elean Pacific Oeean. Hawaiian and other Pacific people have always had a special kinship with the elements of nature and especially the oeean whieh surrounds the islands and connects Hawaiians to an extended family of island people. Trustees directed that copies of the resolution "Calling For an Environmentally Safe and Clean Pacific Oeean," be sent to the United Nations Environmental Program, the International Union of Conservation and Natural Resources, other international and U.S. conservation agencies and organizations, U.S. President Bush, the governor, state and federal congressional delegations, and the heads of state of all Pacific governmental entities including Australia.