Bougainville Waters-Stormy Seas Ahead for PNG's Tuna Revenue

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Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) National Fisheries Authority (NFA) manages the nation’s tuna fishery by selling access to PNG’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to foreign tuna fishing vessels. The revenue collected by the NFA from managing the tuna fishery and other commercial fisheries is annually paid by the NFA to the PNG Government where it  forms a significant proportion of the government’s consolidated revenue.   

Bougainville’s steady progress towards independence from PNG threatens to significantly decrease this annual revenue because of an agreement between PNG and Bougainville that, once a revenue-sharing arrangement has been implemented, Bougainville will receive a portion of this revenue. In August 2019, Nelson Atip Nema, an economist based at The University of Papua New Guinea, estimated that at least 30 per cent of PNG’s annual tuna catch is taken in “Bougainville Waters” (maritime waters associated with Bougainville), which would value the catch at over USD333 million/year. 

The agreement between PNG and Bougainville on tuna fisheries revenue-sharing is in the form of a  Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on fisheries matters between the NFA (on behalf of the PNG Government) and the ABG (on behalf of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville), signed on 5/2/2021.  Section 6 of this MOU, “Financial Arrangements for the Implementation of the MOU”, states in Paragraph 6.1, “The National Government through NFA will provide annual funding of five million kina (K5,000,000.00) as an interim arrangement to the Bougainville Government….until such time a revenue sharing arrangement for the tuna fishery is implemented”.  

Given that the NFA has stalled the development and signing of an MOU on fisheries between the PNG Government and the ABG since the signing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) in 2001, it’s clear that it will be in no hurry to negotiate the agreement and implementation of a revenue-sharing arrangement with the ABG, since PNG stands to lose at least one-third of its tuna fisheries revenue under such an arrangement. Perhaps even more worrying for the NFA is that if PNG’s other maritime provinces seize on the precedent of a tuna fisheries revenue-sharing arrangement between the national government and Bougainville, PNG stands to lose significantly more of its tuna fisheries revenue.  

A concerning lack of understanding by Bougainville’s leaders of its entitlements under the MOU on fisheries matters with PNG is demonstrated by a recent parliamentary exchange between the Bougainville Minister for Primary Industry and Marine Resources, Hon. Geraldine Paul, and the Member for Atolls, Hon. Taehu Pais [1]. In response to a question from Hon. Pais about whether or not the Department of Primary Industry and Marine Resources has data on all fish and other marine products caught in Bougainville waters, the Minister replied that her department doesn’t have the data on how much fish is caught in Bougainville waters, so it cannot demand from Papua New Guinea (PNG) the amount of money that is owed to Bougainville for this fish.   

In fact, the PNG Government, through the NFA, should have automatically paid the first annual amount of K5 million to the Bougainville Government on 5/2/2022 as stipulated in the MOU, without the need for Bougainville to calculate how much fish is caught in the seas around Bougainville. There is clearly no need for Minister Paul to demand this annual payment from the PNG Government since it has already been agreed under the MOU that she signed on behalf of the ABG. This misconception by Minister Paul highlights the continuing lack of capacity within the Department of Primary Industry and Marine Resources to adequately brief Bougainville’s political leaders on fisheries matters.  

[1]  29/4/2022, New Dawn FM News, “No Data Yet on Fish Caught in Bougainville Waters”