The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)
inherited an environmentally fragile and
somewhat arbitrary base for nationhood that
bears little resemblance to its inhabitants’
usual spheres of interaction during
millennia of occupation of the region. FSM
has a small population scattered across a
myriad of islands whose land area is far
smaller than the tuna-rich area of ocean
encompassed within its territorial waters. It
is perhaps not surprising then that FSM’s
fisheries have been seen by many as the main
hope for its economic future. This issue has
become all the more urgent in recent years
with the signing of a new agreement that will
see funding by the United States gradually
diminish until 2023. The search for viable
alternatives to its past and current reliance
on US funding has now become the central
issue in FSM.
While fisheries are an important asset
for FSM, other economic options offer
perhaps greater promise, while the
modification of existing Carolinian
institutions offers a more effective and
possibly less disruptive means of achieving
economic independence and modernity and
a sustainable fishery than other solution, which seek to ‘fast-track’ the process by
grafting modern western institutions onto
islander societies. These problems and
proposed solutions are not limited to FSM,
but have wider applicability across much of
Oceania
