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Federated States of Micronesia Chapter 7 FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA Bill Jeffery Introduction This essay will look at legislation pertaining to, and the management of, underwater cul- tural heritage (UCH) in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in association with the proposed management regime under the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001. In general, the FSM, through its state and national governments and the US federal government implements a co-ordinated program that has not been greatly successful for a number of reasons, and these are outlined in the essay. The FSM, through Chuuk State, has legislation that dates back to 1971. This legislation was innovative for the 1970s because of its ‘cultural tourism’ provisions, but it has failed to keep pace with the increase in tourism since then and is now in need of review. Much of the work on UCH in the FSM has centred on shipwrecks and that continues to be the case, although it is slowly changing. While shipwrecks do not reflect the dom- inant culture inhabiting and governing the FSM – the indigenous culture – foreign per- spectives have dominated, essentially because of the foreigner-driven diving industry. The introduction of the UNESCO Convention 2001 is timely in terms of assisting the FSM in pursuing a program of managing and conserving its wider UCH. How this can be done is explored below. 146 Chapter 7: Federated States of Micronesia 1. UCH Law and Practice in the Federated States of Micronesia 1.1 Background The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is a newly formed nation comprising the island states of Yap (9°30’N; 138°E) in the west and Chuuk (Truk), Pohnpei and Kos- rae (5°20’N; 163°E) in the east. It covers an area in the Western Pacific of over three mil- lion sq km, of which only 702 sq km is land (a total of 607 islands) and is home to about 110,000 people. While small in size from the point of view of usable land, its size in terms of jurisdiction over the sea and seabed is large, given the coastline/base-line for measuring the territorial sea/EEZ is 6,112 km in length. As is the case with other Pacific island nations, the FSM has a valuable role to play in the protection of UCH. ‘Micronesia’is a recent (c. 200 years) European term given to some of the many tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean to differentiate them from Melanesia and Polyne- sia.1 The Micronesian region includes the group of islands known as the Caroline Islands (the FSM and the Republic of Palau), the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of Nauru and the Republic of Kiribati. These islands have been occupied for more than 2,000 years. Although the Spanish were the first foreigners in the greater Micronesian region (Mag- ellan first crossed the Pacific and arrived in Guam in March 1521), it was the Portuguese who first visited the FSM, namely Yap in 1525. Through an arrangement with the Por- tuguese, the Spanish developed an interest in this region.2 Subsequently Spanish, Eng- lish, French, American, Russian, German and Japanese explorers, traders, whalers, and missionaries (in some cases with devastating impact on the health of the indigenous occupants) visited the Micronesian islands. However, it was not until 1886 that the Spanish established a ‘formal’ presence and rule over Micronesia. After the Spanish- American War of 1898, an arrangement between Spain, Germany, and the USA allowed Micronesia, except for Guam, to be purchased by Germany from the USA for about US$4.2 million. At the beginning of World War I, Japan seized the islands in a secret and controversial pact with Great Britain to counter the German presence in the Pacific. From 1919, Micronesia was formally recognised as a mandated territory of Japan by the League of Nations. Following World War II, the US was granted a strategic trusteeship of the region by the UN, and the region became known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). Over the next 40 years, the Marshalls, Palau and the North Mar- iana Islands left the federation, leaving Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae to form the FSM, accepting a Constitution in 1979 and entering into a Compact of Free Association with the US in 1986. The FSM was officially recognised as an independent nation by the UN Security Council in 1990. The US maintains special relationships with all the Micronesian nations/territories, being responsible for their defence and providing con- siderable financial assistance. 1 N. Meller ‘The Congress of Micronesia’ in D. Hanlon Remaking Micronesia (Hawaii, 1998) p. 1. 2 F. Hezel Foreign Ships in Micronesia (1979) p. 15; in 1494 through the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal and Spain divided the world between them, and the Pacific became the domain of Spain..
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