Marshall Islands 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 3 Marshall Islands 4 Pacific Islands 5 Chapter 2 7 Political Overview 7 History 8 Political Conditions 10 Political Risk Index 23 Political Stability 37 Freedom Rankings 52 Human Rights 64 Government Functions 66 Government Structure 68 Principal Government Officials 71 Leader Biography 72 Leader Biography 72 Foreign Relations 73 National Security 75 Defense Forces 76 Chapter 3 77 Economic Overview 77 Economic Overview 78 Nominal GDP and Components 79 Population and GDP Per Capita 81 Real GDP and Inflation 82 Government Spending and Taxation 83 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 84 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 85 Data in US Dollars 86 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 87 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 88 World Energy Price Summary 89 CO2 Emissions 90 Agriculture Consumption and Production 91 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 93 Metals Consumption and Production 94 World Metals Pricing Summary 96 Economic Performance Index 97 Chapter 4 109 Investment Overview 109 Foreign Investment Climate 110 Foreign Investment Index 112 Corruption Perceptions Index 125 Competitiveness Ranking 137 Taxation 146 Stock Market 147 Partner Links 147 Chapter 5 148 Social Overview 148 People 149 Human Development Index 150 Life Satisfaction Index 154 Happy Planet Index 165 Status of Women 174 Global Gender Gap Index 177 Culture and Arts 186 Etiquette 187 Travel Information 188 Diseases/Health Data 197 Chapter 6 203 Environmental Overview 203 Environmental Issues 204 Environmental Policy 210 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 211 Global Environmental Snapshot 222 Global Environmental Concepts 234 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 248 Appendices 272 Bibliography 273 Marshall Islands Chapter 1 Country Overview Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 1 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Country Overview MARSHALL ISLANDS The Marshall Islands is a small Pacific island country with a population of around 60,000. It was named after English explorer John Marshall, who visited the islands in the late 18th century. In the 1880s the Marshall Islands became a German protectorate, and during World War I Japan seized the islands. During World War II the United States captured the islands from Japan, and in 1947 the United States entered into an agreement with the United Nations Security Council to administer the Marshall Islands as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. After almost four decades under U.S. administration, the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under a Compact of Free Association. In 1991, the Marshall Islands joined the United Nations as a fully recognized independent and sovereign republic. As is typical with many other small island economies, the Marshall Islands suffers from development constraints including a narrow production and export base, isolated geography, limited natural resources, and vulnerability to external shocks. The country is heavily dependent on external assistance, mainly from the United States under the Compact of Free Association. Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 2 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Key Data Key Data Region: Pacific Islands Population: 72191 Climate: wet season May to November; hot and humid; islands border typhoon belt. English (official) Languages: two major Marshallese dialects from the Malayo-Polynesian family Japanese Currency: 1 United States dollar (US$) = 100 cents Holiday: Proclamation of the Republic is 1 May (1979), Kamolol Day is 4 December Area Total: 181 Area Land: 181 Coast Line: 370 Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 3 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Marshall Islands Country Map Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 4 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Pacific Islands Regional Map Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 5 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 6 of 285 pages Marshall Islands Chapter 2 Political Overview Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 7 of 285 pages Marshall Islands History The Marshallese have had a sophisticated and socially stratified chiefdom-based culture for at least 2,000 years. The original Micronesian inhabitants apparently arrived in migratory waves beginning about 3,000 years ago. These early Micronesian navigators names the islands Aelon Kein Ad, which translates into "our islands". For hundreds of years the Marshallese used detailed navigation charts, constructed of sticks laid on the beach and then memorized. Unlike a modern map, which shows an objectified overall view from an imaginary overhead vantage point, each stick chart formed a sort of narrative on how to sail from one particular island to another. The charts take into account wind, wave and weather patterns in addition to astronomical sightings. Indigenous people undertook long-distance voyages through the archipelago, using large outrigger canoes up to 100 feet long and capable of carrying as many as 40 people. They also had smaller rowing canoes used for fishing and local transportation. The large canoes were constructed from a single trunk of the breadfruit tree. The Marshallese practiced conservation and management of their woods to ensure a sustained supply of this vital raw material; the breadfruit was also one of their staple foods. Islanders also developed an efficient horticulture, nuanced along degrees of intensity that ranged from gathering wild foods, through casual or intermittent cultivation, to careful planting and tending of both annual and tree crops. They had to work harder for their carbohydrate supply than they did for protein, abundantly available in the form of fish and shellfish. The first European to reach the islands was the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Saavedra in 1529, four years after another Spaniard, Alonso de Salasar, had sighted them. The islands accrued to the colonial domain of Spain under the Treaty of Tordesillas. This document, essentially a line the pope drew on a map to demarcate the Spanish and Portuguese empires, was ratified in 1494, so it actually predates the islands' discovery by Europeans. (The treaty's most enduring impact was to set off Portuguese-speaking Brazil from the rest of Latin America.) In fact, Spain exercised almost no colonial administration or control in the islands. The name they now carry commemorates a Briton, Captain John Marshall, who voyaged in the region in the late 18th century. As part of a sequence of mediations in European disputes, Pope Leo XIII reaffirmed Spanish dominion over the islands in 1874 but also conferred trading rights there to Germany. By this time Marshall Islands Review 2016 Page 8 of 285 pages Marshall Islands a number of European powers had begun to operate in the region, with German commercial presence in the Marshalls dating from the 1850s. By the late 19th century Spain's colonial power was decaying-in the far Pacific, Spain was overextended in the task of managing the Philippines- and Germany established a protectorate in the Marshalls in 1885. Its interests centered on stations located on the islands of Jaluit and Ebon dealing in the copra trade (dried coconut). At the beginning of World War I, Japan seized control of the islands and received a League of Nations mandate to administer them in 1920. Japan maintained its headquarters at the German base in Jaluit. The islands, in particular Kwajalein and Enewetak atolls, became the scene of some of World War II's most intense fighting between U.S. and Japanese military forces. Americans took control from the Japanese in early 1944. After the war, most Japanese settlers on the Marshall Islands were repatriated. In 1947, the United States, as the occupying power, entered into an agreement with the United Nations Security Council to administer Micronesia, including the Marshall Islands, which were then known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The United States Navy governed the territory from 1947 until 1951. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States conducted dozens of nuclear test explosions in the Marshall Islands. Islanders consequently suffered radiation-related illnesses. The inhabitants of Bikini Atoll, relocated when their home became a main blast zone, were allowed to return in the 1970s. They were evacuated again a few years later when medical tests showed their bodies were absorbing high amounts of radiation. The United States has provided compensation to the islanders for radiation-caused illness and the environmental contamination that has displaced them from their traditional livelihood, while the Marshallese continue to negotiate for a more comprehensive settlement. From 1965 onward, there were increasing demands for local autonomy. That year, the Congress of Micronesia was formed, and in 1967, a commission was established to examine the future political status of the islands. In 1970, the commission declared that Micronesians had a right to sovereignty over their own islands and to their own constitution, which would proclaim self-determination and the right to revoke any association with the United States. In early 1979, the Marshall Islands District drafted and ratified a constitution, which the United States recognized on May 1, 1979. This marked formal establishment of the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States intended to terminate the trusteeship agreement by 1981. In 1982, the United States signed a Compact of Free Association that delineated principles