Solving for X: Reinventing Ocean Stewardship Leadership Pathways

Friends of the Mariana Trench Monument (FOMT) will create pathways to increase community interest in natural resource management policy and careers. The community has identified the need for culturally competent natural resource management leadership, yet Indigenous people make up less than 2% the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) natural resource managers. The project seeks to promote positive and permanent changes in the Indigenous community as traditional ocean conservation practices become relevant to concrete career pathways. As Indigenous peoples populate the CNMI’s natural resource management leadership, ocean and marine resource policy will increasingly incorporate traditional knowledge for the betterment of CNMI natural resource and marine management. The FOMT have a vision to see the Chamorro and Carolinian communities thriving with the benefits of a healthy ocean through multi-generation ocean stewardship.