Wikileaks: Marine protection zones are being tailored to help corporate interests, screw native peoples

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Throughout the world, opposition is building to fake marine “protected” areas designed to fulfill the agenda of corporate globalization and the privatization of public trust resources.

The rights of indigenous people and fishing families are rarely considered in the creation of these racist “no fishing and gathering” zones, whether they are installed in the Chagros Islands by the United Kingdom, the Sea of Cortez by the Mexican government, or along the California coast under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

(See: Why Is A Big Oil Lobbyist In Charge Of California’s Marine Protection Program?)

The African Union recently backed Mauritius against the United Kingdom in the dispute over the Chagros Islands in the Indian Ocean. Secret cables between US and British governments released to the UK Guardian by Wikileaks disclosed how the so-called marine protected area supported by Greenpeace and other corporate environmental groups were installed to deny the native Chagossians the right of return and to allow alleged CIA renditioning of “terror” suspects on the US military base at Diego Garcia.

The Assembly of the Union, at its 16th Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 30 to 31 January 2011, passed a resolution to “support fully the action of the Government of the Republic of Mauritius at the United Nations General Assembly with a view to enabling Mauritius to exercise its sovereignty over the Archipelago.”

The resolution notes with “grave concern that notwithstanding the OAU/AU Resolution/Decisions and the strong opposition expressed by the Republic of Mauritius, the United Kingdom has proceeded to establish a ‘marine protected area’ around the Chagos Archipelago on 01 November 2010, in a manner that was inconsistent with its international legal obligations, thereby further impeding the exercise by the Republic of Mauritius of its sovereignty over the Archipelago.”

Mauritius on December 20, 2010 initiated proceedings against the United Kingdom concerning the legality of the purported “marine protected area” under Article 287 and Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“Mauritius is also committed to taking other measures to protect its rights under international law relating to its legitimate aspiration to be able to exercise sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including action at the United Nations General Assembly,” the resolution noted.

According to Wikileaks cables sent from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to the U.S. Embassy, setting up the marine reserve effectively “stymied the return of the former islanders.”

Marine reserve area used as rendition site for ‘terror’ suspects

“We do not regret the removal of the population,” FCO Commissioner Colin Roberts wrote to his U.S. counterpart in May 2009, “since removal was necessary for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to fulfill its ‘strategic purpose.’ “

He continues, “Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands’ former inhabitants or their descendants from resettling in the BIOT.”

Elements of the British government seem to have been less concerned with protecting marine life than with protecting the U.K.’s relationship with the U.S. “The CIA has allegedly used Diego Garcia as a ‘black site’ for deposing terror suspects,” according to reporter John Bowermaster.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued an embarrassing apology to members of Parliament in February 2008. Despite “earlier explicit assurances” to the contrary, he admitted that two planes carrying prisoners of the U.S. “war on terror” had landed on the British-owned island of Diego Garcia in 2002 before flying to foreign territory as part of the “American extraordinary rendition program.”

The marine reserve, the largest in the world, was pushed through by the U.K. government, the Obama administration and nine prominent environmental NGOS, ranging from the Pew Charitable Trust to Greenpeace, in spite of outrage by the Chagossians and human rights groups throughout the world.

“The fish have more rights than us,” said Roch Evenor, secretary of the U.K. Chagos Support Association, who left the islands when he was 4 years old.