Interior Provides $189,881 to Northern Mariana Islands to Develop Staff in Natural Resource Management; Teach Youth in Environmental Conservation; Strengthen Efforts to Clean up Garapan Watershed

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 21, 2017) – This week Interior Acting Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Nikolao Pula has made available $189,881 for natural and cultural resource protection in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). 

“We are pleased to support Governor Ralph Torres’s team in shoring up management plans and prioritize efforts around natural resource protection,” said Pula. “We are also pleased to support a non-governmental organization that is working towards the same goals by training youth.  All efforts are critical to the future of the CNMI.”

The CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality Division of Coastal Resources Management will use $95,000 to: 

1. Train staff in marine and island eco-systems management;
2. Conduct “Ridge to Reef” educational programs for youth to make connections between land-based sources of pollution and coastal health;
3. Provide surveillance, monitoring, and outreach to reduce littering, violations, and illegal dumping in Garapan;
4. Update the CNMI Coral Reef Management Priorities Setting Document through a two-day workshop involving all key agencies and stakeholders on island;
5. Study Saipan lagoon seagrass to establish benefits these habitats provide to near-shore coastal environment; and
6. Update Conservation Action Plan for Garapan, the most densely populated watershed in the CNMI, and to help prioritize the most imminent among threats such as polluted storm water runoff, nutrient pollution, or algal growth.

Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance, a non-profit organization in the CNMI, will use $94,881 to educate and train high school and middle school students in community conservation and stewardship programs to protect Saipan’s natural resources and the environment.  This year the students will develop a school conservation action plan.  They will also carry out reforestation projects at several public parks, particularly in coastal areas impacted by Typhoon Soudelor in 2015.

All funding for cultural and natural resources protection and management was provided for under what was formerly called the Coral Reef Initiative and is available under CFDA# 15.875 at https://www.grants.gov/. All four U.S. territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as well as the three freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau are eligible to apply.

Discretionary funding provided by the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior is appropriated annually by the U.S. Congress to help address needs in the U.S. Insular Areas.

The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for coordinating federal policy with respect to the territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and administering and overseeing U.S. federal assistance provided to the freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau under the Compacts of Free Association. On behalf of the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas executes these responsibilities through the Office of Insular Affairs whose mission is to foster economic opportunities, promote government efficiency, and improve the quality of life for the people of the insular areas.

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