Remarks by…

                            Remarks
                                by
                 His Excellency, The Honorable
                  Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr.
                        --------------------
                Pacific Island Conference of Leaders
                                   --------
                               May 9, 2007

Thank you Mr. Chairman and good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. It
is always exciting for me to have the opportunity to spend time with so
many Pacific island leaders and their able staff. The Pacific Island
Conference of Leaders is a very unique opportunity to convey, discuss
and negotiate ideas and priorities that cut across regional boundaries
and political spectrums. It is also a lot of fun to just re-establish close
friendships and tell a few stories with old friends. Trust me, the stories
that you tell in D.C. this week will stay in D.C.


I want to also offer my thanks to President Note, our Chair, the U.S.
Department of State and the East West Center, for their hard work to
bring this event together. I know how hard it is to get a group of island
leaders into one building at the same time half way across the world. I
applaud the organizers for successfully undertaking such a monumental
task.


I am very grateful that we have time today to discuss our issues
together, so that we can move forward with our shared island agenda
and make progress on issues that are best advanced when we work



                                      1
together as one. I am hopeful that our visit this week during the "Year
of the Pacific" is the beginning of stronger collaboration between the
U.S. and our Pacific islands in many areas, but particularly our
commitments to conservation and sustainable development.


Just a half a year ago, my Micronesian colleagues and I stood before
many of you at a High Level Event at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders
Meeting in Nadi, Fiji, to discuss the Micronesia Challenge. We were
joined by President Anote Tong of Kiribati and Environment Minister
Poseci Bune of Fiji. Each of us described recent major commitments to
conservation on our islands and related the fundamental importance of
these conservation commitments to the long-term future of our people,
our cultures and our economies.         I also talked about the Pacific's
leading role in developing a Global Island Partnership to promote and
support this work on islands everywhere.         At that event, it was a
pleasure to hear the U.S. Ambassador highlight the new Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument and recognize the value
of close collaboration with Micronesia and the wider Pacific.


These declarations reflect the development of a strong movement in the
Pacific, and in the other oceans of this world ­ an island movement ­ to
preserve our cultural pasts, to conserve our natural beauty and to ignite
our sustainable futures.     At the center of this movement is the
recognition that none of our islands can achieve their development goals
standing alone. This year has been declared the "Year of the Pacific" in
the U.S. and next year is the "International Year of the Reef". As



                                    2
President Anote Tong said at the Forum meeting in Nadi, "we are
seeing a Time for Islands"


The Micronesia Challenge is our contribution to this island movement.
It is a commitment by the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the
Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and two U.S.
jurisdictions ­ the Territory of Guam and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands ­ to effectively conserve at least 30% of our
near-shore marine resources and 20% of our terrestrial resources by
the year 2020.      Our Challenge was inspired by Fiji's earlier
commitment to conserve 30% of its marine resources by 2020. And it is
paralleled by Kiribati commitment to protect the Phoenix Islands and
Hawaii's Northwestern Hawaiian Island Marine National Monument.


The Micronesia Challenge is a major undertaking for each of our
jurisdictions. But today, I won't dwell on the many important steps we
are taking to successfully implement this Challenge. Let me just say
that we are all on our way ­ passing legislation, establishing protected
area networks, building capacity for management and enforcement,
engaging traditional and community leaders, and preparing for secure
long-term funding for this critical work.


Today, I am here to seek your hands, your hearts and your support for
something larger than all of us ­ Our environmental and our
development futures. And I believe our goals for a bright Island future
can be advanced through even more Pacific leadership and active
engagement in the Global Island Partnership.

                                    3
The Global Island Partnership, also known as GLISPA, is a growing
movement by island leaders to take responsibility for our own
environmental protection and to engage partners in effective action for
our islands. This movement, developed during the Mauritius
International Meeting in January of 2005 and launched at COP8 in
Curitiba just last year, now represents the interests of over 500 million
people on 130,000 islands.   In two years, it has engaged more than 20
countries and 20 international, national and local organizations in high-
level commitments and on-the-ground action for island conservation
and sustainable use. These commitments have resulted in more than
US$25 million in support for island environmental programs.


The early success of the Micronesia Challenge is partly due to the
support received from the Global Island Partnership and the Leaders of
the Pacific Island Forum.    Many of you were there in Fiji when we
agreed, as a region, to support the Challenge and the commitments by
Fiji and Kiribati and to encourage similar initiatives throughout the
region. We also called upon regional and international development
partners to support these efforts through strong technical assistance
and funding. Finally, we charged our regional agencies to assist us in
the development and resourcing of realistic financial plans in support of
the conservation and sustainable use of our natural resources.


The preliminary success of the Micronesia Challenge is also due to the
strong support of The Nature Conservancy and Conservation
International, who came together through GLISPA to jointly commit $6

                                   4
Million to Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of
the Marshall Islands. These funds must be matched by $12 million
from local, regional and international partners, to reach a sustainable
financing goal of $18 million for the first phase of the Challenge. Upon
completion of more comprehensive financial plans, a new funding target
will be developed to achieve the long-term goals of the Challenge in all 5
jurisdictions.


But most of all, the Micronesia Challenge and the Global Island
Partnership are finding success because it is simply TIME. Time for
each Pacific leader to make conservation a priority ­ Time for the
protection of our diverse ecosystems ­ Time for regional and sub-
regional efforts to achieve a common goal ­ and Time to join with
private and public partners throughout the world to achieve our
sustainable development agenda.


Mr. Chairman, this meeting is an excellent opportunity for us to
continue to move forward and agree to work together to make our
environments a regional and a global priority. To achieve our priority
goal during this Time for Islands, let us understand that each of our
islands has unique strengths and realities. Each of us can lead our
region in key areas of conservation and sustainable development. For
example, Fiji is already leading in the area of locally managed marine
areas, Vanuatu is showing the way for all of us in fuel self-sufficiency,
Hawaii and Guam are leading the battle against invasive species, and
Palau is beginning to blaze a trail in the establishment of financing



                                    5
schemes for protected areas. In other words, we must lead and we must
learn from one another.


Kofi Annan recently said that "The United Nations once dealt only with
Governments. By now we know that peace and prosperity cannot be
achieved without partnerships involving Governments, international
organizations, the business community and civil society. In today's world,
we depend on each other."


Let us take this valuable lesson and apply it to ourselves and our
commitments to work for the future of our islands and our people. Let
us work with all available partners, including the East West Center,
through this Pacific Island Conference of Leaders, and through our
Pacific Island Forum, and develop a new environmental agenda for the
Pacific. Let us work with all our international partners to expand and
enrich our Global Island Partnership. And let us use this Partnership
to export our Pacific lessons to the ocean shores of every country of the
world.


Personally, I am deeply committed to this effort and excited by the
potential for significant long-term success, if we work together. With
my Micronesian colleagues, we are beginning to understand what is
possible when five of us join forces for a single goal. I hope we have
time for some discussion today, so we can enlist the East-West Center in
helping us advance our work with the U.S. and the Global Island
Partnership now in this "Year of the Pacific" and over the coming
years.

                                    6
Thank You




            7