Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
<p>“Pacific environmentalism” emerged as a regional ethic connecting Oceania and protecting Pacific peoples’ ways of thinking and relating to the natural world. It combined a customary body of knowledge about Pacific ecologies shaped over centuries, with decolonial politics, international scie...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022
|
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1797109182451679232 |
|---|---|
| author | de Jong, MH |
| author2 | Belich, J |
| author_facet | Belich, J de Jong, MH |
| author_sort | de Jong, MH |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>“Pacific environmentalism” emerged as a regional ethic connecting Oceania and protecting Pacific peoples’ ways of thinking and relating to the natural world. It combined a customary body of knowledge about Pacific ecologies shaped over centuries, with decolonial politics, international science, and regional principles. This thesis considers the place of Pacific environmentalism within Pacific societies and the global environmental movement from 1970–1995. It argues that Pacific people consolidated knowledge about their ocean and islands, specifically that they are interconnected, indigenous, and inviolable, and used this to further self-determination—first as part of a regional movement, and then to make global interventions.</p>
<p>To account for Oceania’s vast geographical distance and thematic diversity, while demonstrating the operation of a new environmental regionalism, the thesis is structured episodically around the origins and early work of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), an intergovernmental regional organisation. After locating SPREP in Pacific responses to nuclear colonialism, insular laboratories, and preservationist national parks in the mid-1970s, the thesis shows how Pacific scientists, diplomats, community leaders and allies retooled environmental management for regional socio-ecologies. Research conducted regionally maintained Pacific people were an indivisible part of island systems, connected by the ocean into a shared, interdependent environment. Environmental regionalism through SPREP proceeded collectively, effectively mediating technocratic metropolitan influence by emphasising traditional knowledge and community-based management, while counteracting extractive mining, fishing and forestry. Advocacy on the issues of nuclear waste dumping and climate change turned self-determination into sovereignty, using United Nations forums to challenge neo-colonialism and dependency, establishing Pacific regimes of ocean governance and interregional associations of like-minded island regions.
Pacific environmentalism prevented further ecological imperialism and the region’s integration into globalised environmental management; its elaboration contributes an environmental dimension to Pacific histories of political regionalism and a regional critique of “global”-yet-Western histories of environmentalism.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:20Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:ab0fc879-87f7-446f-9ffb-6012a940bb25 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:ab0fc879-87f7-446f-9ffb-6012a940bb252023-03-30T10:07:47ZKotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995 Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:ab0fc879-87f7-446f-9ffb-6012a940bb25HistoryIslands of the PacificEnvironmentalism--HistoryEnvironmental justiceEnglishHyrax Deposit2022de Jong, MHBelich, J<p>“Pacific environmentalism” emerged as a regional ethic connecting Oceania and protecting Pacific peoples’ ways of thinking and relating to the natural world. It combined a customary body of knowledge about Pacific ecologies shaped over centuries, with decolonial politics, international science, and regional principles. This thesis considers the place of Pacific environmentalism within Pacific societies and the global environmental movement from 1970–1995. It argues that Pacific people consolidated knowledge about their ocean and islands, specifically that they are interconnected, indigenous, and inviolable, and used this to further self-determination—first as part of a regional movement, and then to make global interventions.</p> <p>To account for Oceania’s vast geographical distance and thematic diversity, while demonstrating the operation of a new environmental regionalism, the thesis is structured episodically around the origins and early work of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), an intergovernmental regional organisation. After locating SPREP in Pacific responses to nuclear colonialism, insular laboratories, and preservationist national parks in the mid-1970s, the thesis shows how Pacific scientists, diplomats, community leaders and allies retooled environmental management for regional socio-ecologies. Research conducted regionally maintained Pacific people were an indivisible part of island systems, connected by the ocean into a shared, interdependent environment. Environmental regionalism through SPREP proceeded collectively, effectively mediating technocratic metropolitan influence by emphasising traditional knowledge and community-based management, while counteracting extractive mining, fishing and forestry. Advocacy on the issues of nuclear waste dumping and climate change turned self-determination into sovereignty, using United Nations forums to challenge neo-colonialism and dependency, establishing Pacific regimes of ocean governance and interregional associations of like-minded island regions. Pacific environmentalism prevented further ecological imperialism and the region’s integration into globalised environmental management; its elaboration contributes an environmental dimension to Pacific histories of political regionalism and a regional critique of “global”-yet-Western histories of environmentalism.</p> |
| spellingShingle | History Islands of the Pacific Environmentalism--History Environmental justice de Jong, MH Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995 |
| title | Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
|
| title_full | Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
|
| title_fullStr | Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
|
| title_full_unstemmed | Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
|
| title_short | Kotahi te moana, only one ocean: Pacific environmentalism, 1970–1995
|
| title_sort | kotahi te moana only one ocean pacific environmentalism 1970 1995 |
| topic | History Islands of the Pacific Environmentalism--History Environmental justice |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dejongmh kotahitemoanaonlyoneoceanpacificenvironmentalism19701995 |