Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has reaffirmed Solomon Islands’ leadership in establishing the Melanesian Ocean Reserve (MOR), announcing new resources to a ministerial platform on the sidelines of the 54th Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara today.
The Reserve — the world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve — blends ancestral knowledge, modern science, and regional leadership to protect the seas across the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia.
When complete, it will cover more than six million square kilometres — an expanse as vast as the Amazon rainforest — safeguarding some of the world’s most biologically rich and culturally diverse waters.
First unveiled by Manele at the UN Ocean Conference in France earlier this year, the MOR is being hailed as a historic step in ocean governance.
“Never before have countries united across entire EEZs to enshrine Indigenous governance, constitutional authority, and ancestral stewardship as the foundation of large-scale ocean protection,” Manele said.
“The ocean has always been our garden, our market, and our home. Today, we take further steps toward making that truth the law.”
The new ministerial platform will drive negotiations with partner nations on the MOR Declaration and mobilise financial support from development partners.
Fisheries Minister Bradley Tovosia and Environment Minister Polycarp Paea also outlined the Four Paddles — the core programs guiding the Reserve:
- Monitoring and Management of the ocean
- Indigenous-led Investment in sustainable blue economies
- Sustainable Transport & Reconnection of island communities
- Integrating Science with Ancestral Knowledge to deepen understanding of marine systems
Minister Paea emphasised that MOR reconnects Pacific people with their ocean.
“We eat from and live in the ocean, but we have been retreating from it as other ways of life dominate,” Paea said.
“MOR is a unifying approach that builds from ancestral knowledge rather than replacing it,” he added.
Minister Tovosia described the initiative as a framework for sustainable growth.
“The Melanesian Ocean Reserve mainstreams the ocean in our economic thinking,” he said.
“Through transparency we can observe our full ocean space, while Indigenous investment ensures Solomon Islanders are direct participants in the fisheries value chain instead of spectators,” Tovosia added.
Led by Solomon Islands, PNG, and Vanuatu — with support from the Islands Knowledge Institute and Nia Tero — leaders will carry the momentum to Climate Week in New York later this month to advance financing discussions.
