Protect Chagos

The UK Government is considering declaring the Chagos Archipelago the World’s largest Marine Protected Area, in order to conserve its globally important coral reefs and related ecosystems. On 10 November 2009, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office launched a consultation to seek public opinion on the issue. The consultation closed on 5 March 2010.

The consultation document proposed three main options for a Marine Protected Area, all of which excluded any kind of fisheries or similar marine activities within the reef areas.

What these options did not take account of were the wishes of the Chagossian community. The islanders were removed from their homeland by the British Government in the late 1960s to make way for the US military base on Diego Garcia.  They have been campaigning ever since for their right to return.

The full no-take protection of reef areas (as proposed by the consultation document) would provide no means for resettled islanders to utilise their marine resources for subsistence or income generation.  Communities and Marine Protected Areas coexist across the world, and there is no reason why the islanders could not be successful stewards of their coral reef environment.

In its own submission to the consultation, MET called for the FCO to consider a fourth MPA option, one which explicitly considers the future possibilities of resettlement by Chagos islanders and a transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius. This is, in our opinion, the best way to to protect both the marine ecosystem of the Chagos archipelago and the rights of its exiled community. The full letter can be read here.