Oceans policy to help protect resources

A 10-year National Oceans Policy which provides broad guidelines for managing and protecting the country’s maritime resources was launched in Port Moresby yesterday.
Department of Justice and Attorney General secretary Dr Eric Kwa told the media that the National Oceans Policy 2020-2030 was the framework the Government would use to work with maritime provinces and the country’s borders as well as the development of its resources.
He said it also provided a guideline for the Government to work with stakeholders such as the National Fisheries Authority when issuing fishing licences; Mineral Resources Authority when issuing licences for mining activities such as deep sea mining, the National Forest Authority, Conservation Environment and Protection Authority and others.
“Under this framework, we can now work with the different stakeholders and develop specific key action areas on how to use, protect and sustainably manage those different aspect of the ocean,” Kwa said.
He said if there would be a deep-sea mining in the future as it was a specific aspect of the mining, this policy would provide a guideline to the Government on key areas to consider when issuing licences.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done (but) at least for the first time now, we have a general policy telling us where this country will go into the future in relation to its oceans and its management.”