The people of New Caledonia, a remote French territory in the South Pacific Ocean, have long relied on a healthy and thriving ocean to protect their way of life.
The country boasts the second-longest barrier reef in the world, an economically, socially, and culturally important feature that supports vibrant lagoons, dazzling corals, and thousands of marine wildlife species. This reef system provides New Caledonians with fish to eat, protects coastal communities from storm surges, and is vital to the Kanak people’s traditions, many of which date back thousands of years.
But this ecosystem faces many well-known threats, from illegal fishing to pollution to sea-level rise due to climate change. That’s why the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, working with local partners, launched an initiative in 2018 to seek ideas for better protecting and restoring ocean health.
This effort, called Blue Trophies, solicits proposals from local residents, schools, associations, and businesses to advance marine conservation.
In 2021, participants from each of the country’s three provinces presented a total of 24 projects. Juries announced six winners, and the public voted online for a seventh project. Blue Trophies supplies financial resources and technical help in support of innovative proposals that raise awareness about issues facing New Caledonia’s waters or promote marine conservation efforts.
One winning team will build a traditional canoe in Poindimié, New Caledonia, that will become a traveling public exhibit, displayed as an educational tool to provide information about ocean protection and traditional values.
Another project, led by a local musician, will transform waste found on the beach into musical instruments that will be used to create an album.
A third project will be an underwater exhibit featuring wood totems, made by local sculptors, of marine species to symbolize the relationship between sea life and Oceanian culture. The project team plans to display the totems in a museum for a few months before placing them underwater.
In past years, Blue Trophies has yielded several impactful projects. In 2019, 50 high school seniors in New Caledonia hosted a mock United Nations session in which the students negotiated a treaty for biodiversity conservation in the high seas. The goal of the exercise was to raise awareness on ocean protection issues globally.
New Caledonia has taken significant measures to safeguard the ocean. In 2014, the country established a marine management area, called the Coral Sea Natural Park, over its entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ). In 2018, New Caledonia created marine protected areas (MPAs) for five remote reefs spanning 28,000 square kilometers (10,800 square miles).
Through the Blue Trophies initiative and other work, the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project continues to advocate for New Caledonia to further protect its waters by establishing highly protected marine areas within the Coral Sea Natural Park.
Creating a large MPA in New Caledonia’s EEZ would be especially beneficial because it would connect to Australia’s Coral Sea Marine Park, providing contiguous protection across an area of critical habitat for resident and migratory species. Science shows that fully protected, well-managed MPAs are the best tool for conserving biodiversity and ecosystems.
Further, linking these two parks also would help New Caledonia ramp up its contribution to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s recommendation to governments worldwide to protect 30% of ocean habitats by 2030. It also would signal that both countries are committed to protecting the marine environment in the South Pacific.
Christophe Chevillon leads the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project’s work in New Caledonia.